Cardinals aim for rebound at Oskaloosa
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| Newton senior Ira Mitchell runs the ball during Friday’s season opener against Pella. The Cardinals look to rebound this coming Friday at Oskaloosa. (Chris Bollhoefer/Special to Daily News ) |
Perhaps the biggest positive Newton football coach Ed Ergenbright can take out of his team’s 35-14 season-opening loss last week to Pella is that the Cardinals know what they have to fix.
Newton had problems on both sides of the ball last Friday night at home, managing just 11 first downs and 227 yards of offense, while giving up 258 yards on the ground defensively.
Ergenbright stressed needed improvement on the offensive line as the key for this week’s preparation for a road game at Oskaloosa (0-1).
“For us to be successful we’ve got to fix several things that did not go well,” Ergenbright said. “We need to clean up some offensive line play. Our offensive line is made up entirely of underclassmen, but that can only be an excuse for so long. We’ve got to raise our level of play there. That’s been a point of emphasis this week.”
Last week Newton saw a 13-7 halftime deficit turn into a 35-7 blowout early in the fourth quarter before an Ira Mitchell 15-yard touchdown run made the score more respectable with six minutes left in the game.
Tackling, as well as special teams, were other components that Ergenbright said were not crisp in last week’s loss. The Cardinals gave up a 68-yard kick return for a touchdown that was Pella’s last score of the night after safety. Twice on Newton’s punt attempts the snap went over Matt Easley’s head.
“We’re going to get that straightened out,” said Ergenbright about the long-snapping issues. “As well as our kickoff coverage. We didn’t play well on special teams. We’ve got to improve our overall tackling on defense. There were a few scoring plays where me missed a tackle at the point of contact or just missed it.”
Ergenbright said the Little Dutch showed some plays and formations his team wasn’t quite ready for, which created confusion on the Cardinals’ defensive calls.
Overall, Ergenbright said his team is better than what it showed last Friday.
“Pella was a good team, but we certainly didn’t feel like we played as well as we could,” he said. “We felt like in a lot of ways we played them even. But you don’t get do-overs.
On the positive side, Newton got a solid passing effort from junior quarterback Brian Rose, who made his first career start. Rose went 7-of-12 for 76 yards, including a 39-yard completion to wide receiver Kole Wilson.
“Brian’s a real steady athlete,” Ergenbright said. “He’s real calm, talented. He’s a good basketball and baseball player. Those are the kind of things you look for in someone leading your offense. We don’t worry about our quarterback position right now.”
Also with a solid offensive performance was senior running back Ira Mitchell, who churned out 98 yards on the ground on 16 carries for a 6.1 average. Zach Roskilly added 65 yards on 15 carries.
“Ira probably didn’t get as many touches as he should have, but we never got into a consistent flow offensively,” Ergenbright said.
Looking to tomorrow night, the Cardinals will try to right the ship as they travel to Oskaloosa for another non-district game. The Indians are also coming off a tough loss as they were upended by Grinnell, 34-13. A senior-dominated team, Oskaloosa lists 20 seniors on its roster of 42.
Like Pella, the Indians are a team Newton hasn’t played in decades before its move to 3A this season. The last time the Cardinals played Oskaloosa was in 1967, a 16-12 loss. Back then the teams played each other regularly, with Newton holding a 25-22-4 edge in the all-time series.
Ergenbright said the Indians’ approach is a straight-forward one, and one the Cardinals will be better prepared for than they were for Pella. Newton scrimmaged against Oskaloosa in team camp.
“They’re physical,” he said. “They’ll come after us. They are going to try and run it down our throat. We know them considerably better than we did Pella. They’ll show us new things of course, but we’ll be able to prepare better.”
