Moving the football doesn’t mean much if you can’t finish drives.
New Palestine finished possessions off on Friday night. Center Grove didn’t, and that was the difference as the Class 5A No. 1 Dragons pulled away from the Class 6A No. 4 Trojans, 28-9.
"Every time we were at a key point in the game, we didn’t convert offensively or defensively," Center Grove coach Eric Moore said. "You can’t play a good football team like that, not score points and give up big plays. That’s the bottom line."
Though the outcome was still in doubt until about midway through the fourth quarter, the main theme was more or less the same from start to finish for the Trojans, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
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The Dragons crossed midfield on their opening drive before Center Grove forced a punt and embarked on a 16-play drive the other way. That march was stopped short of the end zone but ate up almost seven minutes and resulted in a 28-yard field goal by Austin Watson.
Trojan junior Dane Young intercepted a New Palestine pass on the first play of the second quarter, but the offense went three and out and a short punt set the Dragons up at the Center Grove 29. Five plays later, Charlie Spegal scored from 2 yards out to put the visitors up, 7-3, with 9:20 left in the half.
Center Grove responded with another lengthy drive, marching to the New Palestine 8 before a third-down sack forced another Watson field goal, this one a 38-yarder with 2:38 remaining.
That was enough time for the Dragons to march downfield and threaten again, but a halfback option pass by Spegal was picked off in the end zone by Young with seconds on the clock.
The Trojans opened the third quarter with another long drive that stalled and turned into a Watson field goal, this one from 37 yards. New Palestine made them pay for not cashing in with a touchdown, going 73 yards in just 46 seconds to pull right back in front. Spegal went in virtually untouched from 21 yards out to make it 14-9 at the 6:38 mark.
Moore cited his team’s failure to score a touchdown on that first second-half possession as a key turning point.
"That should have been our third touchdown of the game," he said. "We never put them in a bad position. The one time we had them in a bad position, they got out of it. … Every time we got ourselves in a good position, we shot ourselves in the foot."
The Trojans’ next two drives produced nothing, and the Dragons stretched their lead to 21-9 with 6:58 remaining in the game on a 56-yard catch-and-run by Maxen Hook.
Spegal, who finished with more than 200 yards rushing to leave himself on the doorstep of Sammy Mireles’ career state rushing record, tacked on a 28-yard score with 2:55 left to ice it.
Though Center Grove heads into next week’s game at 0-2, they can take solace in the fact that they did the same thing last year before bouncing back and making a semistate run.
"We’ve just got to go have fun playing for the Copper Kettle," Moore said. "We’ve owned it for four years, and it used to be a big thing. Hopefully it still is. Maybe it isn’t, I don’t know; maybe that’s the problem. But to be the first team ever to win it five years in a row would be huge, so that’s what we’re going to try to do."
