Cardinals open district play at home

Kyle Long dropped back, set his feet as Newton High’s offensive line provided a clean pocket for him to pass out of and the Cardinal junior quarterback launched a strike down the middle of the field. There to haul in the football in stride was junior split end Julian Hotchkin who went to the end zone untouched.

That’s how last week’s final non-district game began for the Cardinals against Waterloo East. The Cardinals piled up 415 yards on the ground to secure a 55-33 win.

“We snuck up on them on the first play of game and that was big,” Newton head coach Ed Ergenbright said after the win at Waterloo East. “We’re a running team but we need to throw the ball to keep defenses honest and Kyle is improving every game in passing the ball. We’ve got some kids stepping up and catching it.”

Newton faces another winless team — South Tama County — to open Class 3A District 7 play at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Newton’s H.A. Lynn Stadium. It’s homecoming for the Cardinals South Tama’s Trojans are 0-4 after losing 45-27 to Nevada last week.

Leading the way into Class 3A District 7 action is 3A No. 4 Pella (4-0) followed by Oskaloosa (3-1) as both teams were 3A playoff teams a year ago. Pella finished as the Class 3A state runner-up in 2017 after three straight 3A state championships.

Newton and Knoxville are 2-2 after non-district games. Grinnell (1-3) hosts Oskaloosa on Friday and Pella is at Knoxville.

“We’re never going to be balanced in terms of number of passing plays to running plays. Our balance we’re looking for is to have an efficient passing game to complement our running game,” Ergenbright said. “We establish the run, and it will open up passing schemes out of our offensive sets.”

Long is 31-of-56 for 473 yards and two touchdowns passing. Senior tight end Jacob Murphy has 10 receptions for 165 yards. Hotchkin and junior Cody Satterfield share the duties at split end have combined for nine catches for 201 yards.

Newton’s offense has amassed 1,095 yards rushing led by juniors Dylan Farver with 315 yards on 50 carries and William Cheng with 259 yards on 33 carries. Senior Josh Miller, who has five touchdowns as does Farver, has 224 yards on 46 carries and senior Ryan Barr has carried the ball 25 times for 187 yards.

Ergenbright said the offensive plan stands going up against the Trojans — run the ball, control the ball, control the clock and finish drives with scores. Newton has a strong placekicker in sophomore Josh Meyer, who is 16-of-16 in extra-point kicks this season.

Ergenbright said South Tama is a tough team to prepare for as its has done something different offensively each week this season. He said the Trojans have played four pretty good teams — Benton, Independence, Bondurant-Farrar and Nevada.

Last week against Nevada, sophomore Peyton Vest rushed for 230 of his season 309 yards. Senior Tanner Walz has 144 yards rushing this season. The Trojan offense is led by senior quarterback Drake Crawford, who is 23-of-52 passing for 442 yards with one TD and six interceptions. The top receiver is 6-foot-5 senior Keith Keahna, 12 catches for 239 yards.

“They play a 4-2 defense but they change their front from play to play. They are a well-coached team,” Ergenbright said. “We have to be ready to adjust to whatever they throw at us.”

Newton hasn’t been as good defensively as its coaches wanted in the first four games of the season. The Cardinals have given up 763 yards passing and 834 yards rushing this season.

“We have to get off the field more consistently on defense. We’ve struggled to do that so we’re changing things up personnel wise to find the best fit,” Ergenbright said.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
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