crimsonace1

"Larry" appears to be a NP student who's just posting dumb stuff on social media to rile people up (one of his posts was "everyone's trying to figure out who I am"). Every school has that person. The best thing to do is ignore them. The poster who was making false accusations appears to live in New Pal and sent his kids to Cathedral and appears to be a bit sore over the loss, and had a bit of a hostile response when that was pointed out to him by someone. Classy response by the official Cathedral account, which is a great program.

He played some LB at Delta. Last year, he rotated in at nose tackle last year when NP played Center Grove. Did a good job, too.

Ran for 1958 yards and 17 TDs as a freshman for Delta. He's being recruited by a number of schools but only has a couple of offers (and a PWO from Tennessee).

10,445 yards - most in state history (Mireles 8,110), 6th all-time nationally 1,024 points - most in state history, 4th all-time nationally 170 touchdowns - most in state hitory

Kyle King has done some incredible things on the football field, but went four quarters toe-to-toe with Dawand Jones last year in the regional despite Jones being six inches and about 100 pounds bigger.

NP got it at the 20 (touchback after a missed FG). Next play was a sack to the 14, then a 35-yard pass to Roudebush to midfield (IMO, the real turning-point play of the game), then Spegal's 50-yard run after a short gain.

Don't forget "urban sprawl"

I climbed on this soapbox in our postgame show tonight as we waited for our postgame interview ... but for those who want to downplay New Palestine's schedule, the Dragons have beaten two regional champs this regular season (6A Center Grove 28-9 & 4A Mt. Vernon 49-7). There was another win against Pendleton Heights, a team that beat regional champ MV in the regular season and played them to the wire in the sectional final. I'm not sure too many teams in the state have two wins vs. semistate participants.

The New Palestine O-Line has been the key to the Dragons' offensive success for years, and a key starter returned this week in Jacob Brittsan. He & Kyle King form a formidable right side, Noah Mack is a three-year starter at C and is a junior. Those guys live in the weight room and it pays dividends on Friday nights. Put a running back like Spegal behind a relentless, strong line and they can be good. In every close game this year - CG, Pendleton Heights, Whiteland, Cathedral - they've taken over in the second half.

Two things he mentioned in pregame interviews - three turnovers a game (he reminded me of that in our postgame conversation tonight, as they got three), and Charlie Spegal's is best when he gets to carry 20+ as he's such a load to bring down, he can wear down a defense. Tonight, carries 1-19 for Spegal: 97 yards, 1 TD Carries 20-30: 188 yards, 3 TD with runs of 50, 31 and 64.

That sequence ... Irish 2nd-and-2 from the 3, get stopped twice then miss a field goal. Right after: 35-yard pass to Eric Roudebush on 2nd-and-15, then 50-yard TD run by Charlie Spegal two plays later, 14-10 Dragons Maxen Hook forces a fumble, Aven Jones recovers on the next play. Spegal +30 (plus a penalty) to the Irish 5 ... in the EZ three plays later, 21-10 Cathedral punt, Charlie Spegal 64-yard run on 3rd-and-6 ... 28-10 Next snap, Hook pick-6 ... 35-10. The game completely flipped in about seven and a half minutes of clock time from late 3rd to early 4th quarter. But that's what Kyle Ralph's teams have done - they can overwhelm with quick turnarounds.

Let me say unequivocally that this person doesn't speak for any of us at NP. Cathedral is a class program with a great fanbase. Tip of the cap to them. Tonight was two good football teams playing a game where the score belied how it was played. Congrats to Cathedral on a great year. That program will be back. Considering the caliber of opponent and the final score, this might be the most impressive win in NP football history.

Video: IHSAAtv.org Audio: NewPalRadio.com To say these two schools have incredible tailgating scenes would be an understatement.

Back to football ... the more I look at these two teams, I don't see a lot of difference. Cathedral has a good QB, a solid 1-2 punch in the running game and big-play receivers. It also has a really good defensive front/LB group that's great at stopping the run. New Pal has a good QB, several good receivers, the state's all-time rushing leader and scorer running behind an All-State lineman and a really good defensive front/LB group that's great at stopping the run. The teams' schedules can be the the talk of things every Friday, but schedules are not on the field Friday night. NP played the exact same schedule last year, then tore through the 5A field to win the state title, with the closest game being 12 points. Columbus East used to have the same criticisms lobbed at its schedule, but the Olympians have made multiple deep tourney runs in 4A and 5A over the last several years (and is a program I have the utmost respect for). Both teams have earned the right to be there. They're both great football teams. They're evenly matched. The tailgating and atmosphere will be off the charts, as you've got two football-crazed schools with great fan bases matching up on a crisp November Friday.

The school in this township would probably be as big as it is now, with a similar student population, no matter where U.S. 52 or U.S. 40 (which also runs through the NP district) were located. Much like Avon, we don't have an interstate exit, yet are still growing rapidly. Don't tell Muda that I live a mile east of the Marion County line and my neighborhood is completely surrounded by fields ... as are the four other neighborhoods on our county road. Quite honestly, it's not much different than living in Frankfort, just that we have a few more subdivisions. But I don't consider suburbs to be a bad thing and I enjoy living in one.

I don't want to feed trolls, but this is absurd. New Palestine is a fast-growing community largely because of the schools. Good for you that you've found the couple of disgruntled people in every community. Our test scores and community makeup are comparable to Center Grove, Avon, et al, and as the school grows, that's going to continue. Property values *inside* the district are substantially higher than those across the line in neighboring districts. I follow a lot of social media accounts. I've not seen anything about "God creating football for New Palestine." I do see a number of people with pride in their community and their football team, and acknowledging the hard work of many in the community to build a quality youth program that has fed this high school team. And yes, I've checked the police records at the local paper. I'm not going to speak for other communities, but New Palestine is fairly quiet, low crime, good community. When it comes to football, we've got Warren Central, New Palestine, Mt. Vernon & Triton Central - all neighboring districts - are all competing for regional titles this Friday night, so obviously, we must be doing something right over here.

We prefer "growing suburban community." Thousands of people making the conscious choice to live in a quiet, tight-knit community with good schools and a good way of life is not something to be panned because they didn't make the choice you'd make.

Not sure, but they're on the approved broadcasters list.

IHSAA.tv will video stream NewPalRadio.com will have the New Palestine broadcast Cathedral buys time on WNDE, so it will have their broadcast

1. NP's schedule isn't awful. 2017 5A runner-up, Center Grove in the non-conference. A Mt. Vernon team that won its sectional (over Pendleton Heights) in the regular season. Yorktown was a Top 10 3A team. Delta was a very good 4A team. It's only perceived as "awful" because NP improved, but there are a lot of good, well-coached teams in the HHC. NP is playing Decatur Central and Brebeuf in the non-conference next year. 2. This team is special and next year will be a bit of a rebuild, but the JV went 8-1 (only loss to Center Grove), the frosh 7-2 and were literally three points away from being undefeated. The seventh grade had a solid season and New Palestine has one of the largest and most well-run youth football leagues in the state feeding it talent. That, and with 300-400 homes under construction *right now* and another 800 or so planned, NP is going to keep growing. Many thought NP's run was going to end after the Neligh/Blackwell/Yazel/Brickens/Estes class graduated with a 2014 state title and a 2015 runner-up, but NP reloaded and the core of last year's title team and this year's squad went 19-2 over the next two years and that set the table for 14-0 last year and 11-0 this year. 3. There is no problem with the nickname. It's unique (Argos & Silver Creek also use it) and a mythological creature. It has *nothing* to do with what some people want to insinuate. The town of New Palestine is very tiny and largely consists of the older neighborhoods on a narrow strip of land between the railroad tracks and U.S. 52 for a mile stretch... most of the population of the New Palestine school district lives outside town limits. It would be like using the population of Bargersville as a proxy for Center Grove's population. Sugar Creek Township's population as of 2010 was 14,900 ... and there have been *several* new subdivisions built since then, so it's probably closer to 18,000-20,000 now. Brandywine Township (south of Greenfield)'s population was about 2,500 in 2010. There isn't much growth in Brandywine, but Sugar Creek Township is one of the fastest-growing areas in Central Indiana. Wouldn't be surprised to see 5,000+ New Palestine fans there Friday night. The crowds for NP games have been huge all season (and every game for several years). This is a football-crazed community.

About 17,500 in the school district as of the 2010 census, and that number is almost assuredly over 20,000 now.

That's the case every week at New Pal. Home or away, there aren't any empty seats. The community support for football here is off the charts.

The IHSAA does number the regionals, but it's not really used as popularly since there are only four in each class. You'll notice the regionals numbered if you go to the IHSAA website. I believe the accepted style the AP (and thus print and broadcast) media use is to use the sectional number for that round, but to just refer to the following rounds as the "regional" and "semistate" without attaching a number. In basketball, the sectionals are also numbered, but I always only use the host school in naming the sectional ... e.g., "3A at New Castle" instead of "3A sectional 27."

That, IMO, was the primary reason the success factor was initiated (and notice that both times the points threshold to stay up in a higher class has been changed, it's happened when Cathedral football would've dropped to a lower class without the change. I'm not sure how related those are, but the timing is pretty notable).

That's a bit more severe, but a good deterrent.