Playoff-bound Cardinals shut out CCA in regular-season finale

TIFFIN — The last time Newton’s football team was in the playoffs, senior quarterback Brody Bauer was a fourth grader at Woodrow Wilson.

Eight years later, Bauer and 15 other seniors helped lead the Cardinals back to the postseason.

Bauer tied the school record for touchdown passes in a season on Friday and the Cardinals rushed for 216 yards in a 27-0 road win over Clear Creek-Amana in the Class 4A District 4 finale.

Newton’s defense was lights out, collecting four sacks, snagging four picks and forcing five turnovers in all.

“I’m excited for our kids. It’s a great experience to go through the pageantry of the playoffs,” Newton head football coach Andy Swedenhjelm said. “We have a playoff board in the locker room and we look at that every day and talk about when it’s going to be our time and leave our legacy here.”

The legacy has been felt. Their time is now.

Newton (7-2 overall, 3-2 in the district) bounced back from consecutive losses and clinched its first postseason berth since 2014. The Cardinals also are 7-2 for the first time since 2017.

The victory over the Clippers paired with Pella’s win over Cedar Rapids Washington forced a three-way tie for second place in the district. The Cardinals are the district runner-up by way of the RPI.

Newton opens the 4A playoffs against fifth-ranked Carlisle at 7 p.m. on Friday in Carlisle. The Wildcats (8-1) currently rank fourth in 4A in rushing yards.

Against CCA (3-6, 1-4), Newton led 10-0 after one quarter and it stayed that way until the third.

In the third, the Cardinals pulled away with interceptions on three consecutive CCA possessions. Three short fields led to three scoring drives and the 17-0 second half was more than enough to stay in front.

“It’s pretty awesome and there’s not another group of guys I want to do this with,” Newton tailback Cody Klein said. “I’m just glad this group of seniors has the chance to show what we got the next few weeks.”

Klein rushed for 157 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries in the victory. He now ranks fourth in 4A with 1,200 rushing yards.

Nate Lampe booted a pair of field goals in the game. His first was a 22-yarder that ended a seven-play, 55-yard drive with 8:57 left in the first quarter.

Less than four minutes later, Bauer connected with Christian Ergenbright for a 40-yard touchdown that capped a four-play, 64-yard drive.

Bauer finished 8-of-13 through the air for 80 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 51 yards and another TD on 11 carries.

Bauer’s 138.2 quarterback rating ranks seventh in 4A and his TD pass to Ergenbright was his 13th touchdown pass of the season, which ties him with Tyler Wood for the school record he set back in 2013.

“It feels awesome. We are a super close group so that makes it even better,” Bauer said. “We get one more week with each other. It’s a special feeling.”

The three consecutive interceptions set up three scoring drives in the second half.

Lampe’s 30-yard field goal with 9:28 to play in the third pushed the Newton lead to 13-0 and capped a five-play, 27-yard drive.

Klein’s 5-yard TD run with 7:40 to play in the third pushed the lead to 21-0 after Caleb Mattes hauled in the 2-point conversion. It came on a three-play, 16-yard drive.

“Those three picks were huge. We knew they were more of a running team, but they weren’t having success running the ball,” Swedenhjelm said. “They had to try and throw it and our guys pinned their ears back, got pressure on them and that goes into our strength.

“We feel we have some pretty good defensive backs. There’s a lot of experience back there and if teams have to throw it up them, I feel good about it.”

The final score of the night was an 11-yard TD run by Bauer with 10:47 to play in the game. It was the second play of a 2-play, 25-yard drive.

The Cardinals ran the ball 41 times for 216 yards. The defense limited the Clippers to 180 total yards.

“We felt like our line would be able to control them up front,” Bauer said. “Our line was able to own the line of scrimmage and we obviously feel great about Cody running the ball. He’s one of the best backs in the state.

“We felt confident in our ability to do that, and they tried to take our passing game away a lot. They looked conservative in how they were defending the pass so we felt like we could exploit that.”

The Cardinals were 4-of-6 in the red zone and Curtis Payne (16 yards) and Turner Williams (18 yards) each grabbed two passes.

Nathan Milburn led the defense with 12.5 tackles and one sack. His 76 tackles this fall rank third in 4A and his 14 tackles for loss is tied for third.

Wyatt Weter finished with seven tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss, Clayton Wickliffe registered 6.5 tackles, two sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss and Carson Satterfield chipped in 4.5 tackles, one sack and one interception.

Lampe contributed four tackles and snagged one interception. His five picks this season rank tied for first in 4A.

Brendon West and Thomas Stadelmann each had 4.5 tackles, West recovered a fumble and Jake Ingle and Mattes snagged an interception.

“The defense flew around. They did a fantastic job,” Swedenhjelm said. “They were physical and got a bunch of picks. We also had a fumble recovery that was called back because the officials called intentional grounding.”

Christian Lawson booted six touchbacks on his six kickoffs. Lawson set a new school record for touchbacks in a season and a career with 34. He did it in just eight games and on 39 kickoffs. Lawson’s 34 touchbacks rank second in 4A. The previous school record of 28 touchbacks in a season was set by Nick Easley in 2014.

Newton entered last year’s game in a similar situation. A loss eliminated the Cardinals from the postseason and a win may have gotten them in.

They lost to the Clippers 49-48 in overtime and that defeat served as motivation for the latest meeting.

“Our kids are pretty gritty and don’t expect anything to be handed to them ever,” Swedenhjelm said about coming into the week on a two-game losing skid. “They are blue-collar kids. They knew they had to go out and earn it and they had extra motivation after having the chance to do this last year and coming up short.”

Bauer said many of the players had the scoreboard from last year as their phone screen savers this year.

“We all know how bad it hurt our seniors last year and how bad it hurt us,” Bauer said. “We were super close last year and it was definitely on our minds all week. It was more important to us than it was to them, but that was one of our main objectives. To go get revenge from last season.”

Notes: The Cardinals ended the season ranked No. 11 in the final RPI standings. … Cedar Rapids Washington reached the postseason despite losing to Pella 47-14 on Friday. The Warriors were No. 17 in the RPI but clinched a playoff berth because of their head-to-head win over Marion, which ended the season ranked No. 16 in the RPI. … Cedar Rapids Xavier ended the regular season with the No. 1 RPI in 4A. Carlisle ranks fifth and the other teams close to Newton include Spencer (8th), Western Dubuque (9th), Indianola (10th) and Webster City (12th).