April 25, 2024

Cardinals’ home-opener foe is Ottumwa

By Jocelyn Sheets

Newton’s Dylan Farver (15) scored twice against Ottumwa a year ago. He is one of five Cardinal players with 20-plus carries this season as Newton’s running offense has piles up 535 yards in two games. (Jocelyn Sheets)

Newton High’s Cardinals and the Ottumwa Bulldogs face off for the first varsity game played on the new turf field at Newton’s H.A. Lynn Stadium. Friday’s game is the 46th game played between the two schools with Newton leading the series 26-19.

The Cardinals and Bulldogs bring identical 1-1 records into the Newton home opener. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

Friday is Newton High’s Armed Forces Recognition Night. In conjunction with the Newton American Legion, all veterans and active/retired military personnel in attendance will be invited down to the field to be recognized and participate in the presentation of colors and honoring of America during the National Anthem.

In addition to the evening activities, all Newton High School athletic teams will be introduced and recognized before the game. Introductions will begin at approximately 6:30 p.m. followed with the Armed Forces Recognition.

For the teams, Newton lost to defending Class 2A state champion Prairie City-Monroe 29-28 in overtime and beat 3A Boone 19-13. Ottumwa is a 4A team, which beat 4A Burlington, 47-21, in Week 1 and lost 26-14 to 4A Marshalltown last week.

“We need to continue to play solid defense and be as active as we were last week at Boone,” Newton head coach Ed Ergenbright said. “I was pleased with the way our defense played.”

Ergenbright said another key in defeating a physical Ottumwa team is for the Newton offense to finish drives. He said the Cardinals want to finish what they start each drive and take advantage of the opportunities to score.

Newton is out to establish its running game and weave in passes to keep the Bulldog defense off balance.

Ergenbright said the Bulldogs have a new head coach — Brian Goodvin. The Bulldogs have new offensive and defensive looks for the Cardinals to contend with in 2019.

“We’ll be looking at the same style of defense as we faced at Boone. Offensively, they run a wing-T spread offense with a couple of good running backs,” Ergenbright said.

Junior Kie Glosser and senior Gage Cole are the Bulldogs’ leading rushers. Ottumwa has gained 371 yards on the ground in two games and have 275 yards passing.

Junior Adam Denniston is the Bulldogs’ quarterback, His favorite target is junior tight end Trae Swartz.

Defensive leaders for the Bulldogs are linebackers Mitch Wood, Zach Ross and Quenton Bishop. Jesus Jaime is the anchor along the defensive line and Andrew Cole is the top defensive back.

“The kids are excited about playing at home. They’ve continued to work to clean up our mistakes,” Ergenbright said.

Newton’s defense held Boone to 20 yards rushing after giving up 152 against PCM in the opener. Up front clogging the running lanes are Lane Arrowood, Gabe Abrams, Gage Linahon, Cole Conner and Nelson Lopez.

The leading tacklers for Newton after two games are Dalton Altemeier, Caanan Terpstra, Destin Schroder, Zane Kohlmeyer and Keith Moko. Newton has recorded 13 tackles for loss this season.

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