Back to its winning ways, Lapel beats North Decatur 34-20

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They returned home from the long bus trip to Greensburg with some things to improve on, but all long trips are better after victories.

Lapel got back on the winning track with a 34-20 win at North Decatur on Friday, Sept. 17.

After winning the team’s first three games, Lapel suffered its first loss of the season Sept. 10 against Indianapolis Lutheran.

Despite jumping out to a 20-6 halftime lead, the Bulldogs had to overcome a few costly mistakes to pick up their fourth win of the season.

Junior running back Tyler Dollar had 20 rushes for 183 yards and two touchdowns, including a game-sealer from 82 yards out with less than two minutes remaining in the contest.

“Effort wasn’t an issue. I don’t think we came out of the gate swinging as well as we usually do,” Lapel head football coach Tim Miller said. “Two things plagued us all night — we had a large amount of penalties and we had too many turnovers. Our defense played really well, but we fumbled three times, and you let teams hang around when you do that.”

Miller said twice fumbles led to a short-field drives for the Chargers offense.

It put the Bulldog defense on the field for a considerable amount of time.

With that, their play was praised by the coach. Coleton Kadinger had 17 tackles, a tackle for loss, a caused fumble and fumble recovery. Kyle Shelton had 21 tackles.

“Those two made a lot of tackles at the inside linebacker spots,” Miller said. “Defensively, we played well. With the turnovers and the penalties and getting in a lot of third-and-40s, the defense was on the field too much.”

Charlie Pitcock added two tackles for loss.

Along with Dollar on the offensive side, the Bulldogs got another strong effort from quarterback Brennan Stow.

Stow completed 13 of 18 passes, with one interception, for 161 yards and three touchdowns.

Sophomore wide receiver Nick Witte had five catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns. Noah Hudson had a touchdown reception to go with three catches for 35 yards. Will Alexander had two receptions for 82 yards.

For the season, Stow is 56 of 72 passing (77.8%) for 802 yards, 11 touchdowns and three interceptions.

“Five games in and completing 78% of our passes, I think any coach would take that,” Miller said.

Kaden Camp hit 4 of 5 PAT attempts.

“It’s good to get back on the winning track after a long bus trip,” Miller added. “You get so few chances to play games in high school football, it’s good to take advantage of all of them.”

North Decatur dropped to 0-4, but the Chargers have played four strong opponents (a combined 14-5 record). The 14-point loss to the Bulldogs was their biggest of the season. The Class 1A club lost by seven to Class 2A Eastern Hancock (27-20) and by 12 to 2A Shenandoah (20-8). Against the only Class 1A opponent they have faced, ND lost 19-18 to unbeaten Monroe Central.

Lapel is back on the road this week. The Bulldogs go to Whitestown to take on Traders Point Christian.

“They’re much improved from last year,” Miller said. “From what we’re seeing on film, team speed, size all seem to be better. They play hard and are well-coached. Offensively, they do some run-pass option stuff we don’t see a ton of. We’re going to prepare the best we can looking for another challenge on Friday.”

The Knights are 2-3 and coming off a 40-0 victory against Frontier.