July 12, 2025

Hunter, Grinnell too much for Newton football

By Newton News

Newton junior Nate Maki fights for yardage against Grinnell during the Tigers' 57-13 win on Friday night. Maki led the Cardinals with 78 rushing yards and 56 receiving yards in the loss. (Troy Hyde)

Wyatt Hunter rushed for 246 yards and five touchdowns as Grinnell’s football team defeated Newton 57-13 in the Class 3A District 6 opener for both teams on a wet and rainy Friday night.

Hunter also had 94 yards receiving and scored another TD on a 65-yard screen pass.

“We have to learn how to win and learn how to act like winners, which means coming to practice focused and with high energy and making sure we fix the mistakes we make,” Newton head coach Andy Swedenhjelm said. “If we don’t have that attitude, then we keep making the same mistakes and don’t learn how to compete.”

Reese Hammons returned an interception 80 yards for a touchdown to put Newton on the board in the second half.

Zay Arguello rushed for a short TD in the fourth quarter for Newton’s other TD.

“It was important to put some points on the board in the second half,” Swedenhjelm said. “Anytime you can get confidence in your kids, that’s important. The pick six was an energizing play.”

Grinnell outgained Newton 512-214 in total offense. The Tigers (2-1 overall, 1-0 in the district) rushed for 306 yards.

Newton (0-3, 0-1) turned it over twice and trailed 43-0 at halftime.

“We lost critical situations. We keep making too many critical mistakes,” Swedenhjelm said. “It’s been an issue the last few years so we need to continue working to fix that.”

Nate Maki rushed for 78 yards on 12 carries and had 56 yards on four catches to lead Newton’s offense.

Arguello threw for 98 yards and rushed for 35 and a TD. Keith Moko had two catches for 20 yards and Adam Mattes hauled in one pass for 22 yards.

Hammons led the defense with 5.5 tackles and a pick six, while Braydon Chance had 5.5 tackles. Mattes, Josh Meyer and Jacob Nichols each had three tackles.

Hunter scored the game’s first six TDs. He had scoring runs of 11, 1 and 90 yards in the first quarter and added runs of 5 and 6 and had the 65-yard TD catch in the second frame.

In three games this season, Hunter has 639 rushing yards and 11 TDs.

Newton plays 3A No. 2 Cedar Rapids Xavier (3-0, 1-0) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Cedar Rapids.