<p>For three quarters, Whiteland gave defending Class 5A state champion New Palestine everything it could handle.</p>
<p>The Dragons unleashed their frustration down the stretch, scoring three touchdowns in the final 8:44 to pull away for a deceptive 35-7 victory.</p>
<p>New Palestine (10-0), which won its 24th straight game and improved to 84-4 under seventh-year coach Kyle Ralph, will host Franklin in the sectional title game next Friday.</p>
<p>For the Warriors, the game plan worked out almost exactly as head coach Darrin Fisher had hoped, but some untimely mistakes put the team in compromising positions that ultimately spelled their doom. Whiteland (6-4) committed 10 penalties, including six false starts and two offsides calls.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>"It was what it needed to be," Fisher said of how the game unfolded. "We needed to be conservative in the first half, get them in a place that they hadn’t been, a one-score game at the half. The first drive of the second half started the way we wanted — just, you can’t have dead-ball fouls. Our plan was four yards a play, and that plan doesn’t work when you have dead-ball fouls."</p>
<p>Whiteland got on the board first with a bit of trickery. With good field position after a short Dragon punt, Dalton Murray took a handoff on a sweep, stopped and lobbed the ball up for Dalton DeBaun, who somehow pulled the ball in while surrounded by three New Pal defenders and broke loose for a 57-yard touchdown with 1:39 remaining in the opening quarter.</p>
<p>The Warriors’ defense was the story early on, forcing New Palestine to punt on its first four possessions of the night. The Dragons had just 34 yards of offense in the opening quarter. The visitors didn’t break through until the 8:25 mark of the second period when, facing fourth and 4, the Dragons caught Whiteland off guard with a Blake Austin sweep to the left side. The 41-yard touchdown tied the game up at 7-7.</p>
<p>After forcing a punt, New Pal put together a lengthy scoring march, capped by a 16-yard TD run up the middle by Charlie Spegal, to pull in front with 1:11 to go before halftime. The touchdown put Spegal, already the state’s all-time rushing leader, atop the career scoring list as well.</p>
<p>The Warriors moved into Dragon territory late in the third quarter, but Maxen Hook intercepted a Brant Kunz pass on the final play of the period to kill the drive. Spegal finished off New Pal’s push in the other direction, scoring from 2 yards out with 8:44 left in the game.</p>
<p>"We wanted to get to the third quarter and be able to shoot our shot, and we got to that spot where we thought we could shoot our shot," Fisher said. "Unfortunately, some of those passes were intercepted."</p>
<p>Forced to gamble to stay in the game, Whiteland went for it on fourth down from its own 33 midway through the fourth quarter, but Kunz was sacked by Michigan State recruit Kyle King. Spegal took the handoff 27 yards for a score on the next play, effectively crushing any hopes of a Warrior comeback.</p>
<p>New Palestine tacked on another score with 1:01 to go, with Spegal scoring from 3 yards out after a late interception. The Mr. Football favorite stayed in until the end and wound up with 246 yards rushing on 32 carries.</p>
<p>Though his team’s season ended in disappointment, Fisher was proud of how his senior class responded after a tumultuous start to the year that included the unexpected death of lineman Ryan Latham after the season opener as well as consecutive last-minute defeats to Decatur Central and Franklin.</p>
<p>"There were just some things that happened," he said. "The unfortunate passing of Ryan and dealing with that, and then the two gut-punch losses there in that time, and our seniors had a decision to make. And they really rallied together and rallied the entire team together, and to go on the win streak that we had, I thought it showed a tremendous amount of moxie on their part. … From Week 5 on, it wasn’t me selling it. It was our senior class selling all the things that needed to be done and turn it around."</p>
