LAPEL — To get back to familiar territory, Lapel will have to go through an unfamiliar opponent.

The Bulldogs had their season-starting four-game winning streak come to an end last week at the hands of Class 3A Cardinal Ritter. Lapel, ranked No. 9 in the Class 2A The Associated Press poll and No. 10 in the Indiana Football Coaches Association rankings, dropped to 4-1 with a 38-8 loss on Friday.

This Friday, the Bulldogs take on Class 1A Traders Point Christian. It’s the first meeting between the two schools. The Knights are 1-2 on the season, dropping their last two games to Park Tudor and Frontier. They opened the season Sept. 5 with a win at Clinton Prairie.

It will be Traders Point Christian’s first game outside of Class 1A.

Lapel’s second matchup against a team one class up didn’t go as well as the first.

The Bulldogs opened the season with a 42-19 victory over Class 3A Hamilton Heights.

Ritter came in with a much more accomplished résumé. The Raiders have been to a Class 3A sectional championship game two of the past three years, following winning the Class 2A state title in 2016.

During that 2016 run, the Raiders beat Lapel in a Class 2A sectional title game, 26-21.

In last week’s game, Ritter jumped on Lapel early, scoring 10 first-quarter points. The Raiders led 17-0 at halftime and 24-0 after three quarters.

The Bulldogs got on the board late in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run by Kyle Shelton, who also ran in the two-point conversion to cut the score to 31-8.

Shelton led Lapel rushers with 11 carries for 47 yards. Tyler Dollar had 10 carries for 16 yards.

Quarterback Brennan Stow completed 5-of-18 passes for 68 yards and had two interceptions.

Hayden LeClerc was Lapel’s top receiver with three catches for 57 yards.