Cardinals continue control over Boone

Nineteen players were dressed out for the Newton boys’ soccer team’s home match against Boone on Friday.

All 19 played significant minutes as the Class 3A No. 7 Cardinals cruised past the Toreadors, 8-0, during a non-conference home win at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

It was the fourth straight victory for Newton. It has outscored opponents 20-2 during that stretch.

“We are playing well. The chemistry is starting to click, and I’m really glad we are getting a lot of guys contributing to the wins,” Newton boys head soccer coach Zach Jensen said. “Some guys who are inexperienced are getting time at the varsity level, too, which is huge for us.”

Newton (6-2) improved to 10-1 against Boone since 2013. The last goal the Toreadors (0-5) scored against the Cardinals came in 2017.

The Cardinals scored four goals in each half in the latest meeting. Cody Klein’s first goal of the season started the big offensive night. He blasted the ball from about 30 yards out and it sailed over the keeper’s head and into the back of the net.

Around 10 minutes later, Bryen Hernandez got his first goal of the season when he tapped the ball in from a few feet away out. The ball was deflected after a shot from Jacob Sweeney.

Klein didn’t waste a lot of time putting in his second goal of the spring. Two minutes after Hernandez’s goal, Klein booted another shot from about 20 yards out that looked pretty similar to his first goal.

The final goal of the first half came in the 24th minute. Klein sent a through ball down the sideline that Sweeney ran down. He then delivered a crosser to the middle of the field. That’s where Christian Lawson was and he made it 4-0 with his fifth goal of the season.

Jensen made several subs at that point and four starters plus goalie Hunter Teague played a large chunk of the final 15 minutes of the first half.

Newton held an 18-3 advantage in shots, took all four corner kicks and converted four of their seven shots on goal in the first 40 minutes.

“Happy with the team win. And anytime you can score that many goals is great,” Jensen said. “We have bigger and better things to worry about now though. There’s better competition down the line that we have to get ready for.”

Not much changed in the second half. The Cardinals held a 25-2 shot advantage in the final 40 minutes. They also held a surplus of 10-2 and 6-1 in shots on goal and corner kicks, respectively.

Conner McPartlin extended the lead to 5-0 a little more than 2 minutes into the second half when he scored on a header that was set up by a Nate Lampe corner kick. It was McPartlin’s fourth goal of the spring.

Lampe then scored his fifth of the season when his hard shot deflected off a Boone defender but still found the back of the net.

Caleb Mattes returned to the top of the Cardinals’ goal-scoring list when he scored a tap-in goal that was set up by a Landon Menninga assist. The ball might have gone in anyway, but Mattes made sure of it and the goal pushed the advantage to 7-0 in the 69th minute.

Lampe added one final goal in the 77th minute. That one was set up by Heber Velasquez and it also bounced off a Boone player.

Six different players scored at least one goal and five had at least one assist.

Lampe registered two goals and two assists in the win and now has a team-best 11 assists this spring, which ranks second in Iowa and first in Class 3A.

Klein delivered two goals, Sweeney handed out a pair of assists and Velasquez, Menninga and Jesus Murillo all delivered one assist.

Hunter Teague stopped all three Boone shots on goal and Boone goalie Ben Sellgman contributed 14 saves.

The Cardinals finished with 35 shots and 22 shots on goal.

“Usually, I will let the guys enjoy the win, but I just told them we are moving right into Oskaloosa,” Jensen said. “We lost to them over there last year and shouldn’t have. I still have a bitter taste in my mouth about that one. We all really want this next one. So we’ll move on from this one quickly and get right into that one.

Jensen was locked into the match against Boone. Even with his team up 3-0 and in firm control, he expressed his displeasure with one certain aspect of the game in the first half.

“I was really upset because we worked all day yesterday on throw-ins and nobody was doing what we worked on,” Jensen said. “It is hard to play a game like this, score a bunch and continue to play how we want to play. It’s all about focus and mentality, but it can be hard to stay focused when you’re up 6-0. We have to keep our guys locked in and focused and that can be a tough thing to do.”

Notes: The Cardinals have recorded shutouts of 8-0, 9-0, 4-0, 10-0 and 5-0 in the past five meetings against Boone. ... The only team in 3A which has more wins than Newton is second-ranked Fort Madison, which is currently 7-0.