New Palestine High School

The Dragons are headed downtown. New Palestine's Red Rage defense suffocated one of the state's highest-powered offenses Friday night, while the top-ranked Dragons dominated the line of scrimmage on the other side of the ball, leading to a 43-7 semistate victory over No. 4/3 Martinsville at Kelso Stadium. The Dragons (13-0) advance to the Class 4A State Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium, where they will face No. 2 East Noble (13-1) at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29. It's the culmination of a year of hard work after a semistate loss a year ago. "Only two teams in each division get to do it. I’m proud one of them is us, but it’s not possible without the work these guys put in," Dragons coach Kyle Ralph said. "After that tough loss to East Central, to come into the weight room right away and want to work and get better, with the attitude they were four weeks behind everybody else we have to compete against, to get right back in there just to get a chance to play football again, not knowing if we were going to get this far or not. It’s tough. There are no guarantees in football or in life, but if you work hard, good things can happen. These guys have proven that this year. It’s pretty special." The Dragons' defense set the tone for the evening, forcing a three-and-out on the first drive and then stuffing a fake punt on fourth-and-8. The Red Rage then forced three interceptions - and had their hands on several more Martinsville passes - and also stopped the Artesians twice on downs in Dragons territory. Caden Jacobia started the evening by stuffing Martinsville's fake punt on the Artesians' 14. Three plays later, he found the end zone on his first carry of the game to give the Dragons an early lead they wouldn't relinquish. "We knew the quarterback could run," Jacobia said. "I got off the block, I saw him rolling out and saw him quick. It was a great feeling, a huge momentum push for our team, too." Jacobia ran for a career-high 117 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries. For the third straight week, the Dragons had two 100-yard rushers, as Josh Ranes added 109 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. NP ran for 287 yards on the evening and totaled 416 yards of offense. On the next possession, Desmond Palmer picked off a deep pass at the NP 23. Jacob Davis hooked up with Austin McMahan for a 47-yard pass on the first play of the drive. After a face mask penalty added 15 more yards to the play, the Dragons had the ball in the red zone. Jacobia scored from 15 yards out to give NP a 13-0 lead less than nine minutes into the game. The run and pass game worked together early to loosen up the Artesians. "We knew they were going to give us a lot of fronts, Davis said. "We knew if we got a few big runs in and were able to let it fly, they’d have to back off and it would open up the running game." Martinsville showed life on its next possession, as quarterback A.J. Reynolds found Mason Dodson open for a 53-yard TD pass one play after barely converting a fourth-and-1 near midfield. But that would be the only score of the night for an Artesians team that had been averaging 40.8 ppg. "They did face a lot of challenges in a good quarterback, senior receivers, a big offensive line, they move the pocket a lot, which is hard to deal with," Ralph said. "We gave up that one early on a completely blown coverage, but those guys buckled in and did a great job after that. That’s what it takes. You’re going to get the good and you’re going to get the bad. When the bad happens, you’ve got to respond to adversity. I was proud of how the guys did that." The Dragons quickly responded with another big Davis-to-McMahan connection - this one from 36 yards out - to take a 19-7 advantage in the opening seconds of the second quarter. "It was a great ball by Jacob, a great fake handoff," McMahan said. "That touchdown really got us going, gave us a lot of momentum to do what we do." Davis threw for 129 yards - 93 to McMahan. Their TD connection was their 12th of the year. "When in doubt, throw it up to Austin. He’s always down there and he always comes down with the ball," Davis said. Again, Martinsville drove into Dragons territory, but Garrett Ranes intercepted a pass inside his own 20. The Dragons were unable to move the ball and punted. The Artesians again moved into Dragons territory, but a fourth-down sack ended the drive. NP bled out the rest of the first-half clock, methodically moving deep into Martinsville territory. A holding penalty wiped away an apparent touchdown, but Jake Wells capped the half with a 21-yard field goal to give the Dragons a 22-7 edge at the break. In the second half, it was more of the same. The Dragons held Martinsville to 69 yards of total offense. The Aartesians had life after a fumbled punt return gave them the ball at the NP 33 in a two-score game, but the Dragons stiffened and didn't allow a first down, taking over on downs. While Reynolds threw for 183 yards, the Dragons held his favorite target - Hunter Stroud - to two catches for 26 yards. Stroud came into the game with 103 catches and a state-best 1,397 receiving yards. "We had a great gameplan," McMahan said. "(Stroud) has more than 100 catches on the year, our gameplan was to take him away. We knew if we took him away, things would slow down and we’d get the W." On the ensuing drive, they methodically drove to the Martinsville 36. There, Ranes took a handoff, was stuffed at the line of scrimmage, broke a tackle, bounced it outside and outran everyone for a touchdown, putting the Dragons up 29-7. After stuffing Martinsville on fourth down, T.J. Wadman finished the game with his first career TD in the final minute. The Dragons are making their sixth appearance in the State Finals and first since 2019. It is their fifth trip to Lucas Oil Stadium on Thanksgiving weekend in 11 years. They will be seeking their fourth state title in that time. "It’s a great feeling," McMahan said on making it to Lucas Oil Stadium. "We’ve worked so hard throughout the year. It’s a great feeling knowing we have a chance to redeem ourselves from last year." Class 4A semistate: Dragons 43, Martinsville 7 Friday, Nov. 22, 2024 at Kelso Stadium Martinsville (12-2) 7 - 0 - 0 - 0 -- 7 New Palestine (13-0) 13 - 9 - 7 - 14 -- 43 Scoring summary NP-Ca.Jacobia 6 run (Wells kick), 5:56 NP-Ca.Jacobia 15 run (kick blocked), 3:21 M-Dodson 53 pass from Reynolds (Rawlins kick), :51 NP-McMahan 38 pass from Davis (run failed), 11:43 NP-Wells 21 FG, :00 NP-Jos.Ranes 36 run (Wells kick), 5:32 NP-Ca.Jacobia 8 run (Wells kick), 4:44 NP-Wadman 1 run (Wells kick), :29 Team stats First downs: M 15, NP 21 Rushes-yards: M 22-48, NP 43-287 Passing C-A-I: M 15-32-3, NP 7-11-0 Passing yards: M 183, NP 129 Total plays-yards: M 54-231, NP 54-416 Fumbles-lost: M 0-0, NP 2-1 Penalties-yards: M 7-65, NP 6-55 Punts-avg: M 2-36.0, NP 2-36.0 Time of possession: M 20:14, NP 27:46 Individual stats Martinsville Rushing: Dewey 15-51, Sanders 1-3, Reynolds 7-(-6) Passing: Reynolds 15-32-3-183 Receiving: Dodson 9-108, Sanders 2-35, Stroud 2-26, Jones 1-10, Cazee 1-4 New Palestine Rushing: Ca.Jacobia 12-117, Jos.Ranes 18-109, Davis 9-55, Wadman 4-6 Passing: Davis 7-11-0-129 Receiving: McMahan 3-93, Wasson 2-20, Rollyson 2-16