IHSAA football 5A state final: New Palestine tradition extends to coaches

Is this really the sixth time Kyle Ralph has brought his New Palestine program to the high school football state finals?

Before you go searching, the answer is yes. When his top-ranked Dragons (13-0) hit the field at Lucas Oil Stadium for the Class 5A state finals against No. 5 Merrillville (11-2) on Saturday night, it will be the sixth time in his 13 seasons that New Palestine has reached the state finals.

Only once, in one of the most memorable games in state finals history – a 64-61 loss to Fort Wayne Snider in the 2015 Class 5A game – has Ralph’s team come up short in the state championship, winning 4A in 2014 and last season and 5A in 2018 and ’19. With a win on Friday, the 41-year-old would join Dick Dullaghan and Bud Wright as the third coach in state history to lead five undefeated state championship teams.

“The first thing that jumps out is how physical they are,” Merrillville coach Brad Seiss said. “They are really physically on the offensive and defensive lines. Offensively, they have a lot of movable pieces that do a lot of good things, led by their quarterback (Jacob Davis), who is an accomplished runner and thrower. Then defensively, you look at the inside six and how physical they are and you know they don’t want people to run the football. You know when you play New Pal and a coach Ralph-led team they are going to be well-coached in all three phases.”

Seiss admits this moment “is new to us.” Merrillville is making its first state championship appearance since winning the 1976 Class 3A state title. For New Palestine, which is playing up a class due to the tournament success factor, you can almost count on the season going until the end of November.

Now that Ralph has been coaching at New Palestine for 13 years, there are assistant coaches on the staff who understand exactly what is expected – because they played for him. Nick Brickens, Gunnar Large and Ethan Sturgeon are former New Palestine players during Ralph’s tenure. Alex Neligh, a former standout quarterback, was also on staff but had to step away this year due to his responsibilities as a firefighter.

“It’s a great sounding board for our players, especially,” Ralph said. “Nick Brickens is our special teams coordinator and one of the all-time great players we’ve ever had in New Pal football history, period. He was like an iron man for us … he never left the field. For a lot of our guys, they grew up watching Nick play, they grew up watching Gunnar play, they grew up watching Alex play. No one pays attention to the offensive line, so no one watched Sturgeon play.”

Ralph, a former offensive lineman himself, was half-joking on that last count. He said Sturgeon has been instrumental in leading the freshman team as an offensive coordinator, helping them understand the expectations of the next three years.

“I think for our players to use some of the former greats as a resource, a sounding board – you know we’re tough on our kids – but all of those guys made it through what we do and what our program is about,” Ralph said. “When the going gets tough, you’ve got a guy you can go over to and be like, ‘Hey coach, I’m struggling with some of this stuff,’ and they can help you get through it. Our players reach out to them a lot more than you would think because they’ve watched them do it … when you’ve got guys in your program that have gone through with me and can come and give back, they are worth their weight in gold.”

Here is a closer look at the Class 5A title game:

Matchup

Merrillville (11-2) vs. New Palestine (13-0)

Rankings

Merrillville No. 5 in USA TODAY Network Indiana poll; New Palestine No. 1

Kickoff

7 p.m. Friday, at Lucas Oil Stadium

How to watch

IHSAAtv.org

Championships

Merrillville won its only state championship in football in 1976 in Class 3A, the largest class at the time, 28-24 over Cathedral in front of an estimated 9,000 fans at CYO Field. Merrillville made a stop one foot from the goal line to hold off the Irish. Merrillville was previously 0-10 in semistate games until its 41-14 win over Concord. New Palestine won its first state championship in Class 4A in 2014. The Dragons were runner-up in 5A the following year, then won state titles in 2018 and ’19 in 5A and last year in 4A. Only softball, with six state titles, has more than football’s four at New Palestine.

Coaches

Merrillville’s Seiss, 42, is 94-39 in his 11th season at Merrillville at 107-56 overall. Seiss graduated from Warsaw in 2002, then played at Ball State from 2002-06. He started out coaching for five seasons at Ida Baker High School in Cape Coral, Fla., before he was hired at Muncie Central in 2012. He coached there for three seasons before coming to Merrillville in 2015. He won four regional titles with Pirates before this year’s semistate breakthrough.

New Palestine’s Ralph, 41, is in his 13th season with a 154-14 record and four state championships. Ralph is a Cincinnati St. Xavier graduate who went on to play at North Carolina on the offensive line. He coached one season as an assistant at St. Xavier in 2007, two three years at Oak Hills in Cincinnati and two years at Withrow in Cincinnati before coming to New Palestine, his wife Ashley’s hometown, in 2013 as head coach.

A closer look at Merrillville

This is the Merrillville team that was finally able to end the 10-game semistate losing streak, defeating No. 6 Concord 41-14 last week. The Pirates cruised through Hammond Morton 28-7 and Munster 45-14 in the sectional and Michigan City 34-14 in the regional.

The Pirates are averaging a staggering 477 yards of total offense per game, split almost evenly between rushing (232) and passing (245). Junior quarterback Michael Hill Jr. triggers the offense with 3,161 passing yards and 30 TDs and 509 rushing yards and six rushing TDs. Jac’Quarious “JQ” Johnson is the rushing leader with 1,308 yards and 14 TDs, though Cameron Jordan is also a rushing threat (936 yards, 14 TDs) and leads the team with 64 receptions for 820 yards and nine TDs. Mikel Smoot (54 catches, 850 yards, 10 TDs) and Rynell Lewis (49 catches, 771 yards, four TDs) are also playmakers. Stanley Freeman (77 tackles, 25 tackles for loss, 8½ sacks) and Quron Moore (80 tackles, 24 TFLs, 4½ sacks) are defensive leaders.

A closer look at New Palestine

After winning last year’s 4A state title, the Dragons moved up to 5A via the tournament success factor and kept it rolling with a 27-game winning streak coming into this game. The tournament route has not been easy, playing ranked teams at every step. The toughest game was a 20-15 win over No. 2 Cathedral in the sectional championship. A 20-6 win over No. 8 East Central in the regional was tied early in the fourth quarter.

New Palestine allows just 4.6 points per game, which ranks first in the state. The Dragons have shut out five opponents, including a 42-0 win over Bloomington South in the semistate. The defense is led by senior linebacker Garrett Ranes (94 tackles, 14 TFLs, two interceptions), sophomore lineman Sam Hirschy (60 tackles, 20 ½ TFLs, 8 ½ sacks) and senior defensive back Cameron Rollyson (58 tackles, 13 TFLs, two interceptions), among others. The offense is led by senior quarterback and Towson recruit Jacob Davis (1,796 passing yards, 21 TDs; 917 rushing yards), senior running back Caden Jacobia (1,119 rushing yards, 16 TDs) and junior tight end Mason Oglesby (32 catches, 512 yards, six TDs).

Quotable

Merrillville’s Seiss on making it to state for first time in 49 years:

“We have a lot of people at our school that have been there a long time, like our principal Mike Krutz, who played on the 1976 state championship team and was a teacher and d-coordinator and now he’s the been the principal for 20-plus years. For people like him, for people like Amy Beckham, who has been our athletic director for a very long time, Janis Qualizza, who was our athletic director for 40-plus years, they are all frequents at the games. Our community was definitely ready for us to finally break through and represent our school down here. All the well wishes and all the support we’ve got from everybody has been awesome.”

New Palestine’s Ralph on Merrillville’s offense:

“They’ve hurt people on the ground and in the air offensively. It’s probably one of the most explosive offenses in the whole state in regards to sheer balance and output. They are running for well over 200 (yards) and throwing for well over 200 a game. That’s really hard to deal with and stop. They’ve got great athletes and a good system. They’ve pretty much had their way with everybody they’ve played outside of a couple of teams. With their quarterback, too, he makes a lot of plays and he extends a lot of plays. We’ve had guys like that too and it makes it a nightmare scenario when you’ve got a kid like that back there with a ball in his hands.”

How Merrillville can win

Merrillville will have to have success on the ground to keep the New Palestine defense off balance. I think that battle – Merrillville run game vs. New Palestine run defense – will tell us a lot about how this game will go. Making offenses one dimensional is a strength of the New Palestine defense, which allows just 44.5 yards per game on the ground.

How New Palestine can win

Keep the Pirates’ big plays to a minimum. There is plenty of explosion on the Merrillville offense, so pressuring Hill and keeping him contained will also be a key. Establishing the run on offense and limiting turnovers will be important for the Dragons. Getting off to a good start might also have Merrillville feeling a little overwhelmed in its first state finals appearance since 1976.

Prediction

New Palestine 24, Merrillville 16. Back-to-back titles and No. 5 overall for the Dragons.

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649. Get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter. And be sure to subscribe to our new IndyStarTV: Preps YouTube channel.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA football: New Palestine vs. Merrillville Class 5A state finals