Football Preview: New Palestine Dragons vs. Shelbyville Golden Bears
New Palestine is 10-0 against Shelbyville since October of 2014, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The New Palestine Dragons are taking a road trip to take on the Shelbyville Golden Bears at 7:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (New Palestine has four straight wins, Shelbyville has five straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
New Palestine's offense will try to repeat the strong performance it gave on Saturday, when they got past Greenfield-Central's usually-dominant defense. New Palestine blew past Greenfield-Central 38-0 at home. The Dragons might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won five matchups by 21 points or more this season.
Josh Ranes continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 183 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.6 yards per carry. His rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fifth straight game with at least 119 rushing yards dating back to last season.
New Palestine wouldn't let Greenfield-Central keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. New Palestine can thank Mason Oglesby and Garrett Ranes for forcing both of them. Another thorn in Greenfield-Central's side was Michael Thacker, who picked up a sack and made six total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, New Palestine was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 245 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Greenfield-Central only rushed for 52.
Meanwhile, Shelbyville fell victim to Yorktown and their airtight defense on Friday. They were outmatched by the Tigers on the road and fell 33-0. The match marked the first time this season in which the Golden Bears were not able to get on the board.
New Palestine's victory bumped their record up to 5-0-1. As for Shelbyville, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-5.
Everything came up roses for New Palestine against Shelbyville when the teams last played back in September of 2023, as the squad secured a 49-7 win. In that contest, New Palestine amassed a halftime lead of 35-0, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
