To help win on Friday night, New Palestine had to go back to what it was doing Monday through Thursday.
The Class 4A No. 1 ranked Dragons defeated Class 4A defending state champion Mt. Vernon 35-24 in a Class 4A Sectional 22 quarterfinal matchup in Fortville on Friday.
It was the biggest challenge the 10-0 team had faced all season. For the first time, the Dragons trailed in a game. They were down 24-21 heading into the fourth quarter.
Give credit to Mt. Vernon, boasting two of Class 4A’s best weapons in seniors George Burhenn and Eli Bridenthal.
Burhenn will be a tight end next year at Purdue University. He played receiver, defensive back and returned kicks. Bridenthal, a D-I baseball recruit for Xavier University, did a little bit of everything for the Marauders, too, playing receiver, running back, quarterback, returner and defensive back.
They were a handful for the top-ranked Dragons. Bridenthal threw a 92-yard touchdown pass to Burhenn for Mt. Vernon’s first touchdown. Bridenthal, on a 1-yard quarterback sneak, gave Mt. Vernon a third-quarter lead.
“As much as you can talk about it, put a scouting report together and practice it, nothing replicates the two kids they have,” New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said. “We did a really good job in practices this week. Then, when you come out and play the game for real, those two are really special players. I think our defensive backs, early on, were a little bit intimidated and didn’t want to make mistakes and kind of played that way.”
Ralph knew his club had a great week of preparation. It was a matter of getting back to what they worked on all week at New Pal and transferring it over to Friday night at Mt. Vernon.
“We got them settled in at halftime and made a couple adjustments and really just talked to them about going back to the things that we did in practice so well that they were almost too afraid to do early on in the game,” Ralph said. “Magically, we play better by doing the things we practiced well.
“They’re high school kids. They don’t want to make mistakes. They want to do things the right way and don’t want to be someone that gives up a touchdown or makes a bad play. Sometimes they tighten up a little bit. It was a good experience for us overall (Friday) to get over that and make adjustment and go back playing the way we’re supposed to play.”
New Palestine answered Mt. Vernon’s go-ahead score with an 11-play scoring drive to take a 28-24 lead on an 11-yard touchdown run by Grayson Thomas. It came on the first play of the fourth quarter.
On its next three defensive series, the Dragons held Mt. Vernon to a three-and-out and had two interceptions. Both interceptions were by senior defensive back Blaine Nunnally. The first was returned 47 yards to the Mt. Vernon 16. On the next play, senior quarterback Daniel Tippit IV scored on a 16-yard run to give the Dragons a two-score lead.
Nunnally’s second interception came on a fourth-and-three play on a Mt. Vernon drive that had produced a couple first downs. The Marauders turned the ball over on downs on their next possession.
“Practice couldn’t have gone better in the secondary this week,” Nunnally said. “We had some troubles early and we really picked it up towards the end and crisped everything up. It was an amazing (night).”
New Palestine had beaten Mt. Vernon 42-6 on Sept. 9 in a regular season game. Nunnally said he knew Mt. Vernon would put up a bigger fight defending its state title.
“The energy was a big difference (Friday). It’s playoff football now,”Nunnally said. “Anything can happen on a given night. It’s just different. The atmosphere’s different. The week preparing is different, you’re way zoned in. They have athletes all across the field. They really do. Last time, they didn’t make any plays and we made plays.”
“When we went down. We didn’t push the panic button,” Ralph added. “We came out, leaned on our offensive line, our quarterback, and our receivers and did the things we normally do, moved the football down the field and took control of the game again.”
New Palestine faces another county rival in a sectional semifinal this Friday. The Dragons will play host to Greenfield-Central (7-3).
