June 22, 2025

Senior-heavy Cardinals aim to repeat in Little Hawkeye

By Mike Hockett

The Newton girls soccer team begins its season at Nevada on Tuesday. Members of the team include (front row, from left): Emily Forsythe, Miranda Huebner, Skylar Seals, Peyton Martin, Stevi Eggers, Morgan Elliott, Mackenzie Moss and Amanda Sites. Second row: Amber Karsten, Kaylie Rhoads, Haylie Doland, Josie Matteson, Moriah Doland, Brooke Porter, Ciara Blazek, Maria Fox and Catey Kolpin. Back row: Ella Daft, Dakotah Osborn, Ryan Peterson, Kristin Samson, Rachel Braafhart, Rachel Beier, Kayla Vanderlaan and Chelsea Vanzee and coach Sackda Viravong. (Mike Hockett)

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If the Newton girls soccer team is going to win a third straight Little Hawkeye Conference title this season, it’s going to have to replace a fair amount of essential talent.

But it returns a fair amount, as well.

The Cardinals lost five players from last year’s team to graduation, including three first-team all-conference performers. Those three were goalie Jessica Mouchka, defender Kristin Dloughy and midfielder Keria Huyser. Senior forward Carrington Mitchell also earned second-team honors.

On the flipside, third-year coach Sackda Viravong returns a talented and experienced squad with plenty of offensive firepower.

Last year’s leading scorer, junior Megan Wright returns after scoring 13 goals and three assists last season, which earned her first-team all-conference recognition.

Four of this year’s seniors also earned all-conference honors. Midfielder Lindsey Hook and junior defender Morgan Elliott were both second-team selections, while forward Allison Sheets and defender Casey Croson both received honorable mention.

Sheets tallied seven goals and five assists in 2010, Hook had three goals and an assist, while fellow senior Mackenzie Moss also returns after scoring three goals.

Viravong said that out of the 13 seniors on the roster, seven will likely start.

Perhaps the two most pivotal positions the Cardinals have to replace are goalie and midfielder. Mouchka earned first-team all-conference honors for the second straight season last year as the conference’s top goaltender. She had nine shutouts and allowed only 20 goals in 18 games.

Viravong mentioned that senior Lacy Shives and junior Chelsea Vanzee are both candidates to be in goal this season.

Viravong stressed that replacing Huyser’s midfield position will be essential to Newton’s offensive success this year. She was voted team MVP last year after finishing with a team-high seven assists.

“This year the key is going to be trying to at midfield, trying to hold and distribute the ball,” he said. It’s almost like the quarterback of the team. In our 4-3-3 formation, the midfielder has to be able to play forward and defend.”

Other probable starters are seniors Lindsey Hook, Miranda Huebner, juniors Kaycie Flanagan and and sophomore Kaylie Rhoads. Other seniors on the roster include Mackenzie Hodges, Lyndsay Doran, Chanae Fitzgerald, Ashley Warner and Caitlin Brown.

Viravong said that through the first few weeks of practice, fundamentals have been the focal point.

“Fundamentals are always important,” he said. “A lot of these girls are new to soccer. Most of these girls only play two months out of the year, so you always have to go back to fundamentals in the beginning. Stuff like striking, passing and receiving. Stuff that many of the Cedar Rapids and Des Moines schools have an advantage with because they play club soccer.”

A major change came to Iowa girls soccer for this season, with the expansion to three classes. The 32 largest schools make up class 3A, with the next 48 in 2A and the remaining competing in 1A.

Newton, with 656 student population count at the time of classification, will compete in 2A. Last season in the playoffs, Newton played two schools that would currently be in 3A, Des Moines East and Urbandale. Des Moines East school population was recorded as 1,785 -- the second largest in the state, while Urbandale came in at 1,051. Newton beat Des MoinesEast 3-2 in the regional quarterfinals before falling 2-0 to the second-ranked Jayhawks in the semifinals.

Viravong said he hopes the added class will help his team come playoff-time, allowing the Cardinals to compete against schools that are more of the same size than in previous year.

“It benefits us in the playoffs because in past 3 years we’ve played a bigger school,” he said. “The skill of some of those schools is always like ‘wow’. Playing our-size type of schools, I think that will be a good difference. Hopefully that will help us advance and help us get to state.”

Newton has a scrimmage at Oskaloosa on Saturday, and then kicks off the 2011 season on Tuesday with a game at Nevada.