March 29, 2024

LHC soccer honors go to 10 Cardinals

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Following seasons taking on some of the toughest competition in the state in their own conference, Newton High’s soccer teams each have five players receiving Little Hawkeye Conference honors. In the final polls for the regular season, the LHC had two boys’ teams ranked and four girls’ teams ranked.

Little Hawkeye Conference coaches selected the 2017 All-LHC soccer teams recently. Those were released following the completion of the state boys’ and girls’ tournaments.

Senior Ryanne Rausch and junior Anna Forsyth were named to the 2017 All-Little Hawkeye Conference girls’ first team. Seniors Justin Fischer and Josh Ventling garnered boys’ first-team honors from the LHC coaches.

Newton seniors Taylor Shipley of the girls’ team and Jordan Norvell of the boy’s team earned LHC second-team honors. Receiving honorable mention for the NHS girls were seniors Courtney Jacobsen and Ashlee Freese and for the Newton boys were senior Reagan Maple and junior Dalton Pauley.

Newton girls, who were ranked No. 14 in Class 2A, finished in a tie for third place in the LHC with Class 1A No. 11 Pella Christian and Dallas Center-Grimes at 4-3. Class 2A top-ranked Pella went 7-0 in conference play and 2A No. 9 Norwalk was 6-1.

Newton (13-5) and Norwalk qualified for the Class 2A state girls’ soccer tournament. Both lost in the first round last week. Newton knocked off Pella, 2-1, in a shootout for the regional championship.

The Cardinal boys (12-7) ended up at 3-4 in conference play and were tied for fourth with Pella. Norwalk which was ranked No. 1 in Class 2A, was 7-0 and went on to win the Class 2A state title. Grinnell was second at 6-1 and was ranked No. 11 in 2A. Dallas Center-Grimes was third at 5-2.

Rausch became the all-time career scorer for Newton girls’ soccer and reached the 100-plus career goal total this season. After leading the Cardinals, the conference and Class 2A in scoring the past two seasons, Rausch concluded her four-year career with 28 goals this season. She was second in goal scoring in the LHC and tied for fourth in Class 2A.

Rausch finished with 110 career goals and is among a handful of girl soccer players in Iowa to reach the 100-career goal mark. She led the Cardinals in scoring and was second in assists with six, which was ninth-best in the LHC.

Rausch was the top vote getter as first-team forward by conference coaches. She has earned first-team LHC honors three years straight and was a second-team selection as a freshman.

Forsyth was named first-team defender. Forsyth had three assists and four goals for Newton.

Shipley was named as a second-team mid-fielder. Shipley led the team in assists with a seven which tied her for seventh in the category among LHC players. Shipley, who earned LHC honorable mention as a junior, scored five goals.

Jacobsen, who was a second-team selection as a junior, earned honorable mention honors as a defender for Newton. Freese, who had true second best save percentage — .918 — in the conference and fifth-best in Class 2A — received honorable mention honors as goalkeeper.

Freese made 163 saves in 18 games, including the 1-0 loss in the state tournament to Lewis Central, which repeated as 2A champion. She allowed 14 goals and had eight shutouts in goal for the Cardinals.

Another Newton soccer player garnering Little Hawkeye Conference honors four years in a row is Ventling for the Cardinal boys. He was voted to the first-team as a mid-fielder for the second straight season. As a freshman and sophomore he earned second-team honors.

Fischer is a first-team forward honoree for the Cardinals. He led the team with 17 goals and nine assists. Fischer, who will play for Central College next year, was third-leading scorer for the LHC and tied for fifth in assists.

Ventling had 13 goals and eight assists for Newton, which was second for the team. He was the eighth on the Little Hawkeye Conference scoring list and tied for seventh on the assist list.

Norvell received conference honors three out of four years playing as a defender for Newton. He was a first-team selection a year ago, but was a second-team LHC defender this season.

Maple and Pauley earned LHC honorable mention honors as Newton’s goalkeeper and a defender, respectively. Maple was fifth in saves with 103 among LHC goalies and had the fourth-best save percentage, .752. He allowed 34 goals in 19 games and recorded six shutouts in goal.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com