New Palestine High School

The New Palestine football team took control of Friday's Class 4A Sectional 22 championship game early and never let up in a 43-14 victory over Connersville. The Dragons took just 26 seconds to drive the length of the field and score, and continued to find efficiency, as the varsity offense tallied six touchdowns on just 24 plays in the opening half. The Dragons' longest scoring drive was six plays. The Dragons amassed 366 yards of total offense in the contest to clinch the 13th sectional title in school history. The top-ranked Dragons (12-0) visit No. 2 Roncalli (11-1) in next week's regional. On the game's first play, Isaiah Thacker took a short pass 43 yards. On the next play, Kyler Kropp romped 35 yards for a score to put the Dragons on top. The two-point conversion pass to Brendan Tanksley gave the Dragons a quick 8-0 lead. After forcing a quick Connersville punt, the next drive took just three plays, as Tippit found Thacker for 26 yards, Ty Mitchell for 19 and Kropp carried the last 27 for a score, giving the Dragons a 15-0 edge. On the next drive, the Dragons needed five plays to go 71 yards, but they went the last 62 in three - a 15-yard run by Kropp, a 26-yard pass to Thacker and a 21-yard TD to Mitchell. Another quick drive - a 43-yard pass to Blaine Nunnally - gave the Dragons a 29-0 lead after a quarter. Connersville scored a long TD, but the Dragons quickly answered with TD drives of six and five plays, capped by an 11-yard pass to Nunnally and a 1-yard run by Kropp, putting the Dragons up 43-7 at halftime and triggering a running clock in the second half. The Dragons rested their starters in the second half, with the second unit playing the entirety after the break. The second-half highlight was a 67-yard kickoff return by Micah Clark that set the Dragons up inside the Connersville 30. Kropp tallied 112 yards and three TDs on eight carries, his second consecutive 100-yard game after taking over for Grayson Thomas. Tippit completed 11 of 14 passes for 224 yards and three scores - four to Isaiah Thacker for 109 yards, two to Mitchell for 40 yards and two to Nunnally for 54 yards. Thacker's 109-yard game pushed his career total at NPHS to 1,515 yards, making him the fourth Dragon to tally 1,500 career receiving yards. His 822 yards this season move him into eighth place on the single-season receiving list, while his four receptions tie Blake Austin for fourth on the NPHS career receptions list with 81. With 224 passing yards, Tippit moved into eighth place on the career passing list with 2,437 yards. It's also fifth on the single-season passing list. His 32 passing TDs this season are fourth-most in a season in school history. ... The sectional title was the Dragons' seventh in 10 years. IHSAA Class 4A Sectional 22 final: Dragons 43, Connersville 14 Friday, Nov. 4, 2022 at Kelso Stadium, New Palestine Connersville (7-5) 0 - 7 - 0 - 7 -- 14 New Palestine (12-0) 29 - 14 - 0 - 0 -- 43 Scoring summary NP-Kropp 35 run (Tanksley pass from Tippit), 11:34 NP-Kropp 27 run (Tanksley kick), 9:18 NP-Mitchell 21 pass from Tippit (Tanksley kick), 2:36 NP-Bl.Nunnally 43 pass from Tippit (Tanksley kick), :14 C-Myers 55 pass from G.Pearson (Shawl kick), 4:55 NP-Bl.Nunnally 11 pass from Tippit (Tanksley kick), 2:29 NP-Kropp 1 run (Tanksley kick), :51 C-G.Pearson 2 run (Shawl kick), 10:02 Team statistics First downs: C 15, NP 15 Rushes-yards: C 36-77, NP 13-142 Passing C-A-I: C 16-29-0, NP 11-15-0 Passing yards: C 168, NP 224 Total plays-yards: C 65-245, NP 28-366 Fumbles-lost: C 0-0, NP 0-0 Penalties-yards: C 4-30, NP 3-14 Punts-avg: C 4-34.0, NP 0-0 Time of possession: C 36:51, NP 11:09 Individual statistics Connersville Rushing: Bentley 10-29, DeBoard 6-28, Buchanan 12-22, G.Pearson 8-(-2) Passing: G.Pearson 16-29-0-168 Receiving: Myers 10-142, Buchanan 3-11, B.Pearson 2-15, DeBoard 1-0 New Palestine Rushing: Kropp 8-112, Tippit 2-23, McMahan 2-5, Ca.Jacobia 1-2 Passing: Tippit 11-14-0-224, McMahan 0-1-0 Receiving: I.Thacker 4-109, Bl.Nunnally 2-54, Mitchell 2-40, Kropp 2-12, Hook 1-9