Cardinal soccer teams earn Senior Night split

Newton High’s Cardinal teams split a special night of soccer at H.A. Lynn Stadium on Friday.

It was a Senior Night doubleheader of non-conference action for the Cardinal girls and boys. Also it was Newton’s Conquering Cancer Night, which originally was scheduled during basketball season but the weather did cooperate.

Mother Nature did on Friday.

Newton’s girls rolled up a 6-0 win over visiting Boone to improve to 8-6 with one more regular-season game remaining.

This victory came a night after handing Class 1A No. 11 Pella Christian a 2-1 setback at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

For the 2A 14th-ranked Cardinal boys, their final game of the regular season did not go as planned. The Cardinals faced 1A No. 12 Nevada and held a 3-1 halftime lead on the Cubs.

“We played extremely well in the first half. We haven’t seen that Cardinal team for awhile. We were connecting and putting goals in the back of the net,’ Newton boys’ head coach Zach Jensen said.

“We were still playing well in the second half then we had about a five-minute drop off.”

The Cubs took advantage scoring three goals in a three-minute span in the final 12 minutes.

Jensen said the Cardinals pushed hard and put pressure on the Cubs late.

“We were close to scoring a few times but could not get the tying goal in and force overtime,” Jensen said of a 4-3 loss to Nevada

Senior Ty Arguello got the Cardinals on the board in the first minute of the game off a pass from Jordan Becker. Nevada tied the game at the 32-minute mark.

Newton regained the lead when sophomore Jack Suttek handled a pass from freshman Hunter Kennedy and planted the ball in the net with 24 minutes left in the first half.

Kennedy made it 3-1 10 minutes later with an assist going to Arguello.

Nevada had the three-goal second half to win.

Newton sophomore Josh Meyer was in goal and was credited with nine saves.

“Our kids were very emotional after this loss. You knew it hurt and the kids are caring about having team success,” Jensen said. “We saw the passion and heart we’re going to need for Monday’s game.”

Newton heads into Monday’s Class 2A Substate 7 opener on a two-game losing streak.

The Cardinals finish the regular season 9-8 and begin a run at a second straight trip to the 2A state tournament at home.

“It’s win or go home,” Jensen said. “We have to play a full 80 minutes to get this done.”

At 6:30 p.m. Monday, the Cardinals boys kick the postseason off against visiting Ballard.

For the Newton girls, no information was available on Friday’s win over Boone as of press time.

On Thursday, the Cardinals used a penalty kick goal by senior Peyton Maher and a goal by junior Kamron Nehring on a free kick by senior Rachel Rhoads to defeat Pella Christian 2-1 in Little Hawkeye Conference play.

“The girls played a very controlled and well executed game (Thursday),” Newton girls’ head coach Abby Lamont said. “They tolerated the heat well and had several opportunities that didn’t fall.”

Freshman goalkeeper Aurora Nehring had five saves against PC. She had 120 saves going into Friday’s game against Boone.

“Everyone played a solid game. It was some of the better passing I’ve seen by our team,” Lamont said.

Newton’s girls improved to 8-6 overall and evened their LHC conference mark to 3-3. They wind up the regular season with a final LHC game at 2A No. 3 Dallas Center-Grimes on Tuesday. Game time is 6 p.m.

The Cardinal girls open their postseason at home against South Tama on Thursday. Game time is 6 p.m. at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

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