There’s never been a particularly good time for an opponent to play this season’s powerful Cathedral football team.

New Palestine coach Tim Able figures the Dragons drew about the worst time possible, absorbing a 45-6 loss to the Irish in a Class 4A regional game Friday.

“They’re very difficult to beat,” Able said. “The two weeks prior, they didn’t get off to that good of a start. We were kind of hoping for the same thing.”

Instead, Cathedral jumped to a 14-0 lead after one quarter, led 28-0 by halftime and was able to cruise after that.

It was a disappointing end to New Palestine’s season. But overall, Able’s first year at the school was quite a success. The Dragons went 10-3 and won the school’s first Class 4A sectional title, even though Able wasn’t hired until May.

Unlike most coaches, he wasn’t around players and staff for an entire day. He taught in Decatur Township and made the half-hour commute to New Palestine every afternoon.

“In the two games we lost during the regular season, we would have liked to have played better,” he said. “Against Cathedral, we would have liked to have played better. Losing isn’t the end of the world, but those three are in our craw a little bit.”

Matching that success next year will be a challenge.

The Dragons will have some substantial losses to make up, especially running back/wide receiver/defensive back Pat Feeney , one of the best football players in the school’s history. They also lose an experienced quarterback in Cary Albrecht .

Able said he is thrilled about the talent level in the freshmen class, which has 36 players. But he is concerned about the current sophomore and junior classes, which have less than 20 players each.

“We’ve got improve in our weightlifting program,” Able said. "We have to get stronger. We had a good group of seniors, some good linemen that we’re going to miss, and some good skill kids.

“And obviously, when you’re playing teams like Cathedral, the number factor is huge. We’ve got to increase our depth.”

Able said he continues to talk to New Palestine officials about a teaching position at the school, but there aren’t any openings at the moment. Having him in the building all day likely would make the players more accountable, he said.

“The weight room in football is so supreme to the success of your program,” he said. “You need to be right there when the kids are doing reps to get them to understand what they’re doing is going to establish that.”