INDIANAPOLIS – East Noble’s biggest strength this season has been their run game. New Palestine may have taken that as a challenge as they went to the ground often and successfully Friday afternoon in a 56-26 win over the Knights in the Class 4A state title game at Lucas Oil Stadium.
They game opened up great for the Knights, who forced New Palestine to punt on their first posession. It got better quick though for East Noble, who secured an 80-yard touchdown pass from Rylee Biddle to Logan Hatton just 1:45 into first quarter. New Pal, as expected, hit back quick and hit back fairly hard as they pushed down the field and tied the game on a one-yard run from Josh Ranes. Less than two minutes later, the Dragons went to the air for 52-yard passing score from from Jacob Davis to Austin McMahan.
New Palestine were a bear to handle on the ground, earning 79 yards on the ground as they opened up a 14-7 lead at the end of one, where East Noble and powerhouse Dylan Krehl had -1 yard on three attempts.
The Dragons’ fourth possession was grooving on the ground too leading up to a 4th and short with 10:40 to play in the first half, with Davis working the left side looking for the first down, but Hatton was quick to the ball to make a big open field tackle and force a turnover on downs, getting the Knights the ball back. It looked like the Dragons could force a three and out, but a defensive hold used to stop a pass to Mason Treesh gave East Noble a first down just short of midfield; the Knights were eventually forced to punt again. It allowed the Dragon run game to go back to work behind Ranes as he and Caden Jacobia plowed down the field by bits and pieces. With 6:29 remaining in the half, Jacobia broke out a 22 yard rush; Davis followed it up with a 10 yard run to give New Pal a first and goal from the one yard line that set up another Ranes score.
Treesh’s fumble with 5:10 remaining was grabbed by Ranes after being knocked away by Cameron Rollyson. With the ball on the East Noble 20 yard line after the turnover, there wasn’t much for New Pal to do offensively. On 3rd and goal with 2:23 to play, Ranes dove in from the one to push New Palestine ahead 28-7. The Dragons nearly got an interception with 2:01 to play in the half, but a pass interference call negated the call and pushed East Noble up the field to their own 37 yard line with a fresh set of downs. Two passes later to Landon Swogger and East Noble was in the endzone as Biddle threaded the needle for a score to Swogger; a failed conversion made it 28-13 in New Pal’s favor at the halftime break.
At the half, New Palenstine’s defense, especially their front line, was the story. While East Noble moved the ball 80 yards in six plays over 1:43 to get their second score of the game, they weren’t able to move the ball much between the opening 80 yard strike to Hatton and the closing two passes to Swogger that tallied 48 yards. New Pal had the ball for over 17 minutes while the Knights were shy of seven minutes of offensive possession at the half, where they only had two yards rushing on eight attempts with the Dragons holding Krehl to -2 yards on six carries.
Hatton’s second half opening kick return for 28 yards gave the Knights a nice base to start with but the Dragons still forced a three and out. New Pal worked their way down field slowly until the 6:46 mark when Ranes broke free for 41 yard down to the East Noble 12. A Davis keeper with 5:41 left in the third pushed the Dragon lead to 35-13. On the ensuing drive, New Palestine again forced the Knights to punt (at 4:05 of the third) on their own side of the field after failing on a screen pass on 3rd and 20. From there, the Dragons opened the flood gates on a 61 yard rush from Jacobia, his 12th carry of the game and first touchdown to make it 42-13.
East Noble got into the endzone again before the fourth quarter on a connection from Biddle to Jordan Borders, who was able to move away from the New Pal defensive backfield. Borders’ 30 yard scoring reception cut into the Dragons’ lead (42-19) with 1:22 left in the third but a two-point conversion was no good.
With 9:10 left in the game, Ranes in from the two to push the New Pal lead to 49-19. Jacobia’s scored with nine yards out with 6:37 left in the game to close out New Palestine’s title win. East Noble did add on one final score on a three yard run from Dallas Plattner with just over a minute remaining.
New Palestine held Krehl, one of the best backs in Northeast Indiana, to -2 yards on seven carries. The Knights only got positive movement on the ground late in the game with Plattner running for 72 yards on 10 attempts with half of that yardage (36) picked up on a single rush. Biddle led the way offensively for the Knights with 201 yards on 7-of-27 passing.
The Dragons were paced by 384 total rushing yards with 166 from Ranes and 163 from Jacobia. It was the fourth week in a row that the Dragons had multiple 100+ yard rushers. Ranes ended with four touchdowns.
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