Newton boys first to seven wins after rallying past Boone

BOONE — The Newton boys soccer team trailed at halftime for the first time this season, but the Cardinals maintained their dominance against Boone thanks to a second-half barrage of goals.

Newton trailed 2-1 at intermission against the Toreadors on Friday but rallied with four goals in the final 21 minutes during a 5-2 non-conference victory.

“The first half was horrendous on our part,” Newton head boys soccer coach Zach Jensen said. “It was just uncharacteristic of our guys on how we let them take the lead twice on us.

“We got our minds straight at halftime and focused a little bit more. They didn’t want to lose to a team they’ve never lost to before.”

The Cardinals defeated Boone for the 12th straight time and are now 12-1 against the Toreadors since 2012. The five previous wins came by shutout.

Newton rallied in the second half following Jensen’s ejection. The official gave the Cardinal head coach a red card without a prior warning. But his team scored all four goals in the second half after being told to exit the facility.

“I would have rather taken the warning first, but the ejection seemed to help us,” Jensen said. “We scored right away and took control after that.”

Boone (1-4) scored first in the 5th minute. Christian Lawson scored his first goal of the night three minutes later off a through-ball assist by Cody Klein.

The Toreadors took the lead three minutes later and went into halftime up 2-1. Boone did not score in the final 72 minutes.

“It was not a great half by us,” Jensen said. “It seemed like we were already at prom and we knew how easy we’ve beaten this team before. The message at halftime was we needed to see action and not just words.”

Caleb Mattes tied the score at 2-all in the 59th minute and Jesus Murillo scored his first goal of the season seven minutes later.

Lawson completed the hat trick when he scored twice in the final 13 minutes.

All four second-half goals were assisted by Nate Lampe, who now ranks second in the state and first in Class 3A with 14 assists this spring.

The first assist came off a corner kick and his final two were directly off long throw ins.

Lawson is now up to eight goals this season, which ranks second in 3A. Mattes scored his fourth goal and Klein’s assist was his third of the year.

The Cardinals (7-1) took 32 shots and put 13 on goal. Hunter Teague made three saves, improving his season total to 37, which ranks ninth in 3A.

Dylan Bolton had one goal and one assist to lead Boone, which scored its most goals against Newton since putting in two in both 2014 and 2015.

The Cardinals are the first 3A team to seven wins. The only other team with seven wins is 2A Aplington-Parkersburg.