NEW PALESTINE — Things are going to be a bit different tonight for the New Palestine football team.
They know they aren’t likely to catch their regional opponent off guard. They know Cathedral has seen everything — and then some — that the Dragons might be able to throw at them.
Teams can watch film and get an idea, but what the Irish have done is different. The Irish have faced top-flight competition up and down their schedule, at a level similar to New Palestine’s.
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The Irish will probably be ready for the Dragons.
“They have seen teams that are quote/unquote better than us at different spots,” New Palestine coach Kyle Ralph said. “We’re not going to offer them anything they haven’t seen before.”
The Fighting Irish come into tonight’s game as battle-tested as any team in Indiana, running through a regular-season gauntlet that included two of Ohio’s premier teams and one of Kentucky’s.
Their schedule ranks the toughest among all 5A teams, as they’ve played three of the Sagarin ratings’ Top 25 teams and have gone a perfect 5-0 against Top 64 teams in Indiana. They’ve beaten Center Grove, and they are the only team to beat Indianapolis Chatard this year. They topped another top 3A team, Brebeuf Jesuit, dominated Kentucky’s No. 2 team, Trinity, and blew out last year’s 5A runner-up, Decatur Central.
They’ve lost twice, entering tonight’s game with a 9-2 record, but that was against two Ohio teams, Cincinnati Elder and Cincinnati St. Xavier, who are ranked in the top 10 in their state. Those are schools New Palestine’s coach has some familiarity with.
“They’re probably one of the best teams in Indiana. They’re in the elite level. We obviously would like to think that we’re up there as well,” Ralph said. “Their schedule is something you don’t find in Indiana. They’ve got three (Greater Catholic League) schools, which is where I’m from; I played in the GCL in high school. They’ve got one of Kentucky’s perennial powerhouses on the schedule. They are playing people from all over the place, and they’ve got a tremendous record.”
Cathedral has spent a good portion of the year ranked ahead of the Dragons in the Sagarin ratings, although New Palestine has topped the coaches and AP poll throughout the year.
The Dragons may find themselves in very unfamiliar territory, potentially as slight underdogs tonight depending on the source. But as the defending 5A champions, with a 25-game winning streak dating back more than two years, they still feel like the team to beat.
“I’d say we definitely have the target on our back. We’re No. 1 in 5A, we haven’t really lost a game in a while,” senior running back Charlie Spegal said. “I’d say the target on our back is pretty big right now. It pushes us to be better each day.”
As has been the case in all of their 5A tournament games the past four years, the Dragons will come in undersized and undermanned compared to their opposition. They play most players on both offense and defense, something Cathedral doesn’t have to do.
Two weeks ago against Whiteland, the Dragons used 16 total players. Last week against Franklin, the number rose to 17, with a few others playing a play or two on special teams.
The Dragons aren’t deep. Their roster isn’t big. Yet they keep winning football games and have barely been slowed in two years.
“It’s a group effort. There’s not a lot of us, but it takes all of us, 16, 17 of us, it’ll take all of our efforts and just playing together,” junior quarterback Lincoln Roth said. “When we play together, you know, we’re unstoppable.”
Most of the time, that’s exactly what New Palestine has been. But that isn’t always the case, and this deep in the tournament, finding the kind of running room they are accustomed to can become more difficult.
Despite having the No. 1 scoring offense in the state, the Dragons found themselves uncharacteristically slowed down and punting regularly early in the sectional semifinal against Whiteland. They know they might run into the same kind of situation against a Cathedral defense that allows just 14.82 points per game, despite the high level of competition the Irish have faced.
They also know that eventually, they will likely break through whatever defense the Irish throw at them.
“At some point, the guys up front are going to get it figured out,” Roth said. “At some point, we’re going to get something adjusted. Just being resilient, still hit the hole at 100 percent, still make the right reads … because when it does happen, it’s going to happen and we’re going to go.”
The Whiteland game proved something that the Dragons and their fans probably already knew. If the offense does slow down, the Red Rage defense is more than capable of keeping things close.
Defensively, the Dragons rank second in 5A and eighth overall, allowing just 8.55 points per contest. The varsity defense has given up a total of six touchdowns this year, never more than one in a game. They’ve bottled up Center Grove and slowed Franklin’s high-powered offense to a crawl.
“If you score, you might win, but if they never score, they’re never going to win,” senior defensive back Brody Luker said. “It helps to have a strong defense. We’ve all played together for a really long time, especially the DBs, so the chemistry helps a lot. If the offense isn’t working, the defense just needs to stay strong and do their job and hopefully the offense will get something moving.”
Tonight’s game is the fifth regional in Ralph’s seven years, and the Dragons have yet to lose. They’ve won two 4A regionals (2013,’14) and two in 5A (’15, ’18).
Cathedral has been elite for a long time in Indiana football, with the second-most state championships in history at 12, including five in a row from 2010 to ’15. The Dragons have become one of the state’s elite during Ralph’s tenure, setting up tonight’s heavyweight fight between two of Indiana’s best.
“When you choose to be a Dragon football player, you choose to strive for excellence and be part of the elite,” Ralph said. “All the work we do in the offseason with the lifting, the conditioning, the Dawn Patrols, the practices, all that stuff, it’s to play in a game like this. At the end of the day, win or lose, it really isn’t what it’s about. It’s about the fact that you sacrificed for your teammates, for something greater than yourself, and you put yourself in a position to play for a championship and play in a championship-caliber game.”
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Regional championships
Class 5A
No. 2 Cathedral (9-2) at No. 1 New Palestine (11-0), 7 p.m.
Class 4A
Roncalli (7-5) at Mt. Vernon (10-2), 7 p.m.
For a closer look at the Dragons’ game against Cathedral, along with the rest of the 5A regional matchups, jump inside to Page BX.
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