The Batesville Bulldogs suffered their first loss of the season Friday night in a hard-fought 7-6 home loss to the New Palestine Dragons.

The Dragons have not had the best of luck against the Bulldogs over the past two seasons and they were intent on getting a win in 2007.

“They deserved to win this game,” BHS head coach Eric Heppner said. “They played harder than we did and with a lot more emotion.”

The Bulldogs did not get off the best start. Heppner’s crew has jumped out early in each of the first three wins of the season.

This one was much different.

“We spent the entire first half battling field position,” Heppner said. “And they threw a few things at us we were not expecting ... we had to adjust on the run.”

A weather delay of over an hour did not seem to bother either team. In fact, it may have helped the Bulldogs.

“The delay gave us a little time to figure some things out,” Heppner said. “It probably helped us more than them.”

When the two teams returned to the field following the delay, the game was knotted at 0-0 and just beginning the second quarter.

The Batesville defense stepped up with a big stop on fourth down near the goal line. The Dragons were unable to punch the ball in from one yard out and the Bulldogs took over on downs near the 9:00 mark.

After failing to score, the Dragons later capitalized on a Batesville fumble. A third and nine play was converted in the team’s only touchdown of the game. Quarterback Matt Walsh connected with Colton Tuggle for a 17 yard reception. Placekicker Tyler Kolby added what proved the game-winning point to put New Palestine on top 7-0 with 3:03 to play in the second quarter.

Neither team had much success offensively in the third quarter.

It was not until the fourth quarter when Batesville scored the game’s only other touchdown. Gordon Lang dashed around the right side and scampered 16 yards for a touchdown with 10:02 to play the game. The run capped a 10 play drive, which began in the later stages of the third quarter.

The Bulldogs – without hesitation – went for the two-point conversion. Quarterback Ryan Hartman rolled out to his left and was unable to run it in himself or find an open receiver.

A flurry of activity late in the game gave some hope to the Bulldogs.