By Jeff Hodge
Contributing Writer
NEW PALESTINE – At the start of the Class 4A Sectional 14 clash held Oct. 24 at New Palestine, it looked like fourth-ranked Whiteland’s undefeated regular season was going to be a wasted effort. The opening kickoff was fumbled around by the Warriors, then returned 40 yards by New Pal’s Pat Feeney for a touchdown.
No worries. The Warriors responded by unloading 40 unanswered points of their own to send the young Dragons back to their off-season cave, 40-7.
It was a bad case of déjà vu for the host team, which opened and finished its season with losses to Whiteland 10 weeks apart.
“This was a different team from our first meeting,” Whiteland coach Darrin Fisher said of New Pal. “They ran different defensive schemes and personnel all night long.
“We blocked better this game, played much better on special teams all night long after the muffed kickoff. Special teams did a great job of setting us up in great field position.”
On many occasions on this night, the Mid-State Conference champion Warriors (10-0) took advantage of a short field by hammering the ball into the Dragons’ young defensive unit with running back Jake Harris, who had 25 carries for 230 yards and three touchdowns.
Whiteland’s offensive unit adjusted to the changing defensive fronts by New Pal (4-6) and “took what the defense would give us,” according to Fisher.
Two missed extra points and the fumbled opening kickoff would generally send a team packing at this time of the season. But Whiteland is well-coached and has an explosive, opportunistic offense that seems to be rising to the challenge of heading toward a possible championship season.
The Warriors figure to face their first major challenge in the Sectional 14 title game against No. 5 Indianapolis Cathedral, which would be a home game. The Fighting Irish (7-2) travel to Greenfield-Central (4-6) next week, while the Warriors are home against conference foe Greenwood (4-6), a team they beat 34-10 in Week 4.
It was a good thing that Whiteland had a large crowd that traveled to tonight’s game, since New Pal seemingly did not want to support the team or its coach. As the Dragons came out from the locker room at halftime, several fans were all over the New Pal coaching staff.
For those few fans that seem to have forgotten, New Pal was a very young and undersized team with only seven seniors and 18 juniors on this squad.
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