By Brady Extin | The Times-Post
PENDLETON — Twelve quarters. One hundred forty-four minutes played. Zero points.
On Friday, the Pendleton Heights football team added another shutout to its season resumé.
For the third week in a row, the Arabians stymied an opposing offense, this time defeating visiting New Castle (1-2) 40-0 to open the Hoosier Heritage Conference portion of their schedule.
After 15-0 and 49-0 wins against Lebanon and Anderson, respectively, through three weeks the Arabians have outscored their opponents 104-0.
The Pendleton Heights defense intercepted four New Castle passes, forced two fumbles, had 10 sacks, and held the Trojans to just 10 rushing yards.
A trio of seniors accounted for the interceptions. Nolan Souders had two, Clint Miller had one and Samuel Rhea had one.
Nick Trout and Eli Libler each forced fumbles, and Rylan Keesling and Garrett Pederson recovered them.
Libler, Keesling and Pederson recorded two sacks, and Trout added one. Dresden Roberts led the Arabians defense with three sacks and eight tackles.
While the defense took the pressure off of the Pendleton Heights offense, quarterback Isaac Wilson and company went to work.
Wilson found Caden Sims on a touchdown pass to open the scoring, and from there, the Arabians never looked back.
Wilson and Keaton Jones added rushing touchdowns, and along with Sims, Nate DeRolf caught a touchdown.
DeRolf led the Pendleton Heights receivers with five catches for 43 yards and one score.
Wilson led the Arabians on the ground with 61 yards and one score. Jones finished with 30 yards and a touchdown. Bo Surface and Roberts each had 28 yards. Miller had 17 yards, and Trout took one carry for 15 yards.
Pendleton Heights will look to keep the shutout streak going against another 3-0 team and a high-scoring offense in Greenfield-Central.
The Cougars have put up 49, 57, and 41 points to open the season and are coming off a 41-35 win against Mt. Vernon last week. They opened the season with two shutouts of their own over Madison and Greensburg.
Quarterback Dallas Freeman has thrown for 461 and eight touchdowns and has 220 rushing yards and three scores as well. Braylen Benavente is another 200-plus rusher for the Cougars, and as a team G-C averages seven yards per carry.
Wide receiver Kirk Knecht has 239 yards and four touchdown receptions.
Last season the Arabians dropped a regular-season matchup to the Cougars 35-0 and were eliminated from sectional play by them, 34-28.
The Arabians will play host to the Cougars Friday, Sept. 8, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.