New Palestine High School

The Dragons football team hosts Senior Night Friday as the New Castle Trojans visit Kelso Stadium. New Castle Trojans (1-6, 0-5 HHC) at 4A #3/5 New Palestine Dragons (5-2, 5-0 HHC) Time: 7 p.m. Location: Kelso Stadium Tickets; $6, cash at gate or https://public.eventlink.com/tickets?t=51513 Promotions: Senior Night Audio: NewPalRadio.com (coverage begins at 6 p.m.) Video ($): IHSAAtv.org (coverage begins at 6:55 p.m.) SETTING THE SCENE The Dragons celebrate Senior Night as they welcome the New Castle Trojans for the final regular season home game. The Dragons will honor their 11 football senior players prior to the contest. The Dragons can clinch a piece of their ninth HHC title in 11 years with a victory. This is the 11th meeting between the Dragons and Trojans since 2014. New Palestine has won the 10 previous meetings by an average score of 55-8. Last year, the Dragons won 63-12, with all of their points coming in the first half. The Dragons moved up one spot in the IFCA poll this week to No. 3. In the AP poll, they moved up one spot to No. 5. They’ve moved up five spots in the AP poll and three in the IFCA poll the last two weeks. The Dragons are 72-2 in HHC games since 2013. DRAGONS NOTES The Dragons were efficient in last week’s 49-7 victory over Shelbyville, scoring touchdowns on all seven of their possessions. Gavin Neal completed 9-of-10 passes for 221 yards and a touchdown, while also running for two scores. Grayson Thomas had a lighter workload with 16 carries, but ran for 108 yards and three scores. Kyler Kropp tallied 126 receiving yards on four catches, including 47 and 49-yard receptions. Kropp moved to ninth on the NPHS all-time receiving list last week, crossing the 1,000-yard mark. He has 1,079 receiving yards for his career. Last week marked the second time this season the Dragons had a 200-yard passer, 100-yard rusher and 100-yard receiver. Neal, Thomas and Kropp also reached that feat against Mt. Vernon. Neal’s passing accuracy was his best of the season. With a 90% completion percentage and 22.1 yards per attempt, he had a 308.6 passer rating using the NCAA formula. Seniors Mason Hiatt and Malachi Haines each scored their first career TDs last week. Hiatt had a 19-yard scoring reception in the second quarter, while Haines had a 10-yard TD run in the fourth. Thomas continues to etch his name into the NPHS record book. He now has 1,266 rushing yards this season, 14th-most in school history. He needs 22 yards to move up to 13th - a mark he set as a sophomore - and 243 yards to move to 12th, which Thomas set in his junior season. With 5,164 yards, Thomas is second on the NPHS career rushing list to Charlie Spegal. Thomas is the only back in school history to post four 1,000-yard seasons. Thomas’ next rushing TD will be the 75th of his career, second to Spegal (123) in school history. The Red Rage came up big last week, allowing only 20 rushing yards and 127 total yards to Shelbyville, both season-bests. The Golden Bears had six first downs, four of which came against the second-unit defense. The seven points allowed were the fewest given up by the Red Rage since a 47-7 victory over Delta Oct. 14, 2022. SCOUTING THE TROJANS New Castle enters the week having dropped six straight contests, including a 51-21 decision last week to Mt. Vernon. Senior QB Tyson Lewis leads their Air Raid offense and has completed 45 percent of his passes for 1,120 yards and eight touchdowns. Sophomore Tylin Thrine has been the Trojans’ top weapon. Thrine has 33 receptions for 503 yards and 287 rushing yards on 40 carries. He has two TDs both on the ground and through the air. Senior Gavin Frazier also has 236 receiving yards. Last week,Thrine had 162 rushing yards and 130 receiving yards in a loss to Mt. Vernon. Lewis threw for 185 yards. LOOKING AHEAD The Dragons travel to Delta next week to conclude the regular season. They will find out their sectional destination Sunday evening. FOLLOW US All New Palestine games are broadcast free-to-listen at NewPalRadio.com. All home games are also video streamed at IHSAAtv.org on a pay-per-view basis. NPHS Athletics is on Facebook and Instagram (@NewPalestineDragons), Twitter (@NPHSDragons) and online (NewPalestineAthletics.com).