PENDLETON — At times, Pendleton Heights exposed flaws in the New Palestine armor, and at others, the Dragons looked as dominant as they have all season.

In the end, the Arabians hard-fought effort just wasn’t enough against the No. 1 team in Class 4A.

Pendleton Heights played host to New Palestine on Friday for a Hoosier Heritage Conference meeting and it was the Dragons walking off John Broughton Field with a 56-17 win.

With the loss, the Arabians dropped to 2-3 (1-2, HHC), while the Dragons remained unbeaten.

“They’re a great team. They’re well-coached and they always play us really well. [Pendleton Heights] coach [Jed] Richman and I are good friends, and he does an outstanding job. I think they’re one of the most well-coached, fundamental teams that you’re going to find,” New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said. “When teams don’t beat themselves, you have to beat them, and that makes football hard.”

As they’ve done in every game of conference play, the Dragons offense got off to a red-hot start, and there wasn’t much the Pendleton Heights defense could do.

Josh Ranes took the opening handoff, broke a few tackles, and outran the Arabians secondary for a 75-yard touchdown and Jake Wells added the extra point. The touchdown was to put Pendleton Heights behind quickly.

After both teams traded punts, Pendleton Heights answered with a long drive resulting in a Wyatt DeBertrand 40-yard field goal to make things 7-3.

The New Palestine offense went back to work, though, and scored the next three touchdowns of the game.

Later in the first quarter, New Palestine quarterback Jacob Davis danced around the backfield and extended a broken play with a 36-yard run down to the 3-yard line to set up Ranes for his second touchdown of the night.

Early in the second quarter, Davis used his arm to connect with Austin McMahan on a 49-yard touchdown pass for a 21-3 lead, and after forcing the Arabians third punt of the night, Davis added a touchdown on the ground with an 8-yard run.

For the first time all night, Pendleton Heights answered the Dragons touchdown with one of their own.

A one-handed over-the-shoulder 34-yard catch on fourth down by Cooper Sims set up quarterback Colton Frank to scramble out of the pocket and find Jacob Rowley on the next play for a 23-yard touchdown strike with just under two minutes to go in the half.

On the ensuing possession, the Pendleton Heights defense stood its ground, and a missed field goal by the Dragons as time expired sent the teams into the locker room with New Palestine ahead 28-10.

To open the second half, New Palestine freshman kicker/linebacker Evan Walker made one of the biggest plays of the night.

A one-on-one open field tackle by Walker on Keaton Jones at midfield prevented an Arabians kickoff return to start the half. Three plays later, the Arabians were punting the ball back to the Dragons. Michael Thacker stuffed Jones at the line, Garrett Ranes sacked Frank and the secondary forced an incompletion to get the ball back to the offense.

From there, the momentum flipped back to the Dragons.

Garrett Ranes, who had the sack the drive before, took a forward pitch from Davis 34 yards for the score on the next possession to put the Dragons back ahead by 25.

But again, the Arabians wouldn’t go away.

Helped out by a pair of New Palestine penalties, the Arabians marched downfield and answered the touchdown in just over two minutes. A 30-yard pass from Frank to Rowley moved the ball inside the five, and Jones punched in the short score from the wildcat formation.

To close things out, the Dragons leaned on the run game that had been dominant all night long.

Gavin Neal, the Dragons starting quarterback last season, who had missed all of this season so far because of a knee injury, entered the game at running back and put the exclamation point on a near-perfect game from the Dragons rushing attack.

In the final quarter, Neal ran the ball eight times for 110 yards and two touchdowns. His first score came from 38 yards out and he capped off the scoring with a 2-yard run.

His 110 yards added to what was already a massive total on the ground for the Dragons.

Ranes, the starting running back, carried the ball 22 times for 269 yards and three touchdowns, and Davis ran for 71 yards and a score. In total, the Dragons ran for 469 yards.

A Pendleton Heights offense that was averaging 35 points per game was held to just 17. And Jones – who was averaging 146 yards per game rushing – was limited to 25 yards on 13 carries against a tough New Palestine defensive front.

Frank completed 21 of his 39 pass attempts for 239 yards one touchdown and two interceptions.

Rowley led all receivers with five catches for 108 yards and a touchdown, and Sims hauled in eight passes for 97 yards.

Pendleton Heights plays host to Mt. Vernon tomorrow on homecoming, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

The Marauders picked up their first win of the season last week, defeating Delta 49-20, but their four losses have come to tough opponents.

They opened the season with a loss to Class 6A Noblesville, lost to 5A Franklin Community in week two, and then opened up HHC play with losses to Greenfield-Central and New Palestine.

Mt. Vernon is led at quarterback by sophomore Mason Meyer who has thrown for 492 yards, three touchdowns and four interceptions. He’s coming off a five-touchdown game in the win against Delta, where he threw for one score and rushed for four.

On the season, he has 254 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

Senior running back Joliba Brogan is the main guy the Mt. Vernon offense runs through. He has rushed 100 times for 528 yards and nine touchdowns.

Ryker Baer leads the pass catchers with 10 catches for 199 yards and two touchdowns, Gavin Joy has caught 14 passes for 114 yards, and DJ Johnson has brought in eight catches for 116 yards and one score.