2 weeks Ago By Phil Beebe For The Herald Bulletin
PENDLETON – New Palestine was flashy at times and otherwise consistent and durable. The Dragons were what you would expect from an undefeated top-ranked football team. Pendleton Heights was at times flashy and had big moments of offensive ball movement.
But the successful plays were too few against a team with minimal flaws, and the result was predictable -- the Class 4A No. 1 Dragons winning 56-17 on Friday night. The Arabians' offense had some big moments -- perhaps none were bigger than a fourth-down play that saw quarterback Colton Frank air it out across the middle for Cooper Sims.
The junior receiver stretched out, kept the defender on his back shoulder and reached out with his leading arm for a one-handed grab. The result was a 34-yard gain and first down, and on the very next play Frank spun a ball to the end zone, where Jacob Rowley caught it just above his shoe strings for a 23-yard play and six points. But that second-quarter possession wasn’t a reflection of what the Arabians (2-3) were able to do most of the night against New Pal (4-0).
The Dragons flexed quickly -- like, immediately. On the first play from scrimmage, Josh Ranes busted a play on the left side of the line and went 75 yards for a touchdown. The Arabians were playing from behind 19 seconds into the game.
“In high school football, you control the line. I mean that’s why they're so good. They run the football year in and year out, and they control the line of scrimmage,” Arabians coach Jed Richman said of New Pal.
After an exchange of punts, the Arabians benefited from good field position, getting two first downs before Wyatt Debertrand booted a 40-yard field for Pendleton’s first points. But New Pal answered with another touchdown, and the Dragons scored two more times in the second quarter to make it 28-3. The Arabians wouldn’t give up, scoring late in the second quarter on the Frank-to-Rowley play.
The 28-10 halftime score was a familiar margin, as the teams traded third-quarter TDs before New Pal put another six on the board for a 42-17 lead. “You know, it’s 35-17 and we got a chance to score again,” Richman said. “And we gotta execute.
We didn’t. We threw the ball away. But we learned a lot about ourselves tonight.
“We just kept battling. We wore them down a little bit, and they obviously wore us down. They definitely big-played us tonight, but we didn’t tap out.
That’s for sure.” The New Pal defense effectively took the run game away from Pendleton Heights, limiting Keaton Jones to 52 rushing yards. “They definitely got the better of us up front on offense, but Keaton did a good job.
He made yards out of nothing at times,” Richman said. Frank completed 21 of 39 passes for 279 yards, with Rowley and Cooper Sims making the biggest receptions. Sims finished with 115 receiving yards and Rowley 108.
Sam Behrendt, Jones and Nate Derolf also caught passes. “We spread the ball around, and Colton did a nice job of doing that,” Richman said. “We were better tonight.
Last week was very frustrating. I thought we underperformed. And we challenged them pretty hard this week.
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