NEW PALESTINE — It wasn’t always pretty, but it got the job done.
With normally pass-heavy New Castle employing a run-heavy, control-the-clock gameplan in rainy, windy weather, the New Palestine Dragons barely touched the ball in the first half on Friday night.
They didn’t need much time on offense to open a big lead.
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The Dragons put together a 35-6 lead going into the half thanks to four first-half touchdowns from Charlie Spegal and a nearly-perfect defensive performance. They pulled away in the second half, topping the Trojans, 68-6, and earning themselves a share of the Hoosier Heritage Conference championship.
“We had our moments tonight for sure. The weather obviously didn’t help us at all,” New Palestine coach Kyle Ralph said. “I thought we had a really great gameplan going into this game. Unfortunately, the weather was a lot worse than they predicted. It was just tough. The wind was absolutely brutal and the rain just kept coming down. It was just relentless. That took us out of our plan a little bit.”
The win gave the Dragons (8-0, 6-0) at least a share of their seventh straight conference title and 11th HHC championship overall. It was their 62nd straight regular season win — the second longest streak in state history — and 47th straight HHC win.
New Palestine has never lost to the Trojans (1-6, 1-5), winning all seven matchups since the series began in 2014.
The hosts struck quick Friday night, forcing a 3-and-out and then blocking New Castle’s punt attempt. It took just two plays for Spegal to score, putting the hosts out front just two minutes into the game.
The next two New Castle drives were both ended with fourth-down sacks by the Dragons. First it was Kyle King. The next drive, Aven Jones got the big fourth-down stop.
The Red Rage defense had an almost flawless first half, forcing four turnovers on downs, blocking a kick and getting a 25-yard interception return for a touchdown from Luke Canfield.
The Trojans got on the board with an 83-yard completion from William Grieser to Brandon Matney late in the half, with Grieser punching it in himself from two yards out on the next play.
The one big passing play accounted for two-thirds of the Trojans offense in the half, as the Dragons defense held them to just 40 yards outside of the long pass.
“Thankfully our defense played really well tonight and got us through some of our offensive snafus,” Ralph said.
Meanwhile, Spegal scored four times in the first half, on runs of 2, 11, 73 and 1 yard.
He scored his fifth touchdown early in the second half and the defense forced another three-and-out, then blocked their second punt of the game, which Maxen Hook scooped up for an easy touchdown. Spegal added his sixth TD not long after, this one a 68-yard scamper, on his final carry of the night. He finished with 272 yards on 18 carries.
Tyler Prange got a fourth-quarter interception, Madix Johnson added a 12-yard TD run in relief at quarterback and Devan Hill scored on a 17-yard TD run late in the game to round out the scoring.
“What a great night,” Ralph said of the Senior Night win. “A lot of those seniors got in there and did some great stuff tonight. Some memorable moments for a bunch of them. What a cool thing.”
The Dragons will close the regular season Friday night on the road at Delta. A win against the Eagles (7-1, 5-1), who topped Greenfield-Central 77-0 on Friday, would clinch the conference championship outright for New Palestine.
“This has kind of become tradition now, that Week 9 championship round,” Ralph said. “The first couple of years it was Mt. Vernon. We were both coming into that game undefeated or they were a one-loss team maybe once. When the schedule flipped around, it’s been us and Delta every year. It’s just really cool that the season comes down to that, with the top two teams in the conference again playing each other for the conference championship. We know that if they beat us, it’s going to be a tie.
“The message to the guys is always, we work way too hard to tie. We work to win and be champions.”
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Eastern Hancock at Lapel, 7 p.m.
Greenfield-Central at New Castle, 7:30 p.m.
New Palestine at Delta, 7:30 p.m.
Yorktown at Mt. Vernon, 7:30 p.m.
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