Newton High’s Cardinals overpowered visiting Prairie City-Monroe’s Mustangs Thursday in a preview of a Class 2A substate opener on May 26,
It took about 20 minutes for the Cardinal boys to score the first goal of the night.
“Then the flood gates opened,” said Sacka Viravong, Newton head coach, following a 17-1 win by the Cardinals. “For 14 games, we couldn’t buy enough goals, and kept losing tough contests by one goal.”
Nine players scored a goal for Newton against the winless Mustangs. Duncan Lee had the first goal at the 23:03 mark. He would score three goals in a row in the second half. Newton led PCM, 7-0, at halftime.
“I’m happy for our kids to finally find the net, but sad it was against our neighbor and friends from PCM,” Viravong said. “We played everyone suited up for the game. We played people out of their normal positions to slow things down a bit.”
Following Lee’s opening goal, Newton got two first-half goals each from Dalton Nevels and Garrett Sturtz. Mike McCormick and Grant Davidson each tallied a goal.
Davidson had the first goal of the second half followed by Josh Ventling scoring. Lee had his hat-trick of the second half for a 12-0 lead.
PCM scored its lone goal with 23:50 left in the game when Andreas Varges kicked the ball into the net. Justin Fischer took a pass from Nick Rusk for a goal to put the Cardinals up 13-1. The Mustangs scored an own goal to boost Newton’s lead to 14-1.
In the final seven minutes of play, McCormick had back-to-back assists on a goal by Sturtz and by senior Rodrigo Leon. Leon played in goal for 60 minutes of the game for Newton, then played forward. He scored his first career goal.
Jackson Forck had the final goal with 32 seconds left. Newton had 21 shots on goal and 10 corner kicks. Leon and Reagan Maple shared goalkeeping duties for the Cardinals.
Ventling and McCormick each had two assists on the night. Credited with one assist each were Reese Rosenquist, Zach Combs, Grayson Bookbinder and Rusk.
Newton hosts PCM in the first round of the Class 2A Substate 7 tournament May 26.
Newton’s junior varsity beat PCM, 4-0. Jacob Knoll and Rusk had first-half goals. Fischer and Preston Sherwood each scored in the second half for the Cardinals.
Newton (8-8) plays at home Tuesday against Norwalk in Little Hawkeye Conference play.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com