Six Cardinals score goals in Newton’s win over Oskaloosa

Caleb Mattes didn’t need a loss to Norwalk the night before to get himself motivated for the Cardinals’ matchup with Oskaloosa one night later.

He loves playing soccer no matter if his team wins or loses. He enjoys the match much more though when he registers his first career hat trick.

That’s what the Newton senior captain did on Tuesday during the Newton boys soccer team’s 10-0 triumph over the Indians at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

“I’m always excited to play,” Mattes said. “I feel like we’ve been competing a lot better. Playing Norwalk was a lot of fun. Win or lose, I was ready to go today.”

The Class 2A No. 6 Cardinals continued their dominance over the Indians on a night where Newton’s soccer programs celebrated 30 years of high school competition by recognizing several alumni in between the varsity doubleheader.

Newton is 13-1 against Oskaloosa since 2011. Tuesday’s 10-0 win was the team’s eighth shutout victory during that stretch.

The victory came after Newton lost in double overtime to Norwalk the night before.

“I didn’t want them to hang their heads last night because we had to play tonight,” Newton head boys soccer coach Zach Jensen said. “We needed to get ready for another conference game.

Newton led 6-0 at halftime and four different players scored a goal.

Mattes opened the night with a goal in the 6th minute off a corner kick by Nate Lampe, who finished with five assists in the win.

Mattes delivered the assist on the Cardinals’ next goal as Christian Lawson scored in the 8th minute.

The last four goals of the first half came in the final 18 minutes.

Conner McPartlin made it 3-0 in the 23rd minute and another goal by Lawson pushed the margin to 4-0 in the 27th minute.

Lawson’s second goal was a header that came directly off another Lampe corner kick.

Lampe tallied his lone goal of the match in the 32nd minute and delivered another assist to Mattes, who headed the ball into the goal off a long throw in.

“I find joy in finding open teammates, but it also makes me more versatile and dangerous,” Lampe said. “People have to respect the pass. That helps me come back next time with a shot and the defense may not know what to do.”

Jensen’s message at halftime was to keep scoring. He wasn’t going to be satisfied with a 6-0 win.

“There are games like this where we are up big at halftime and we settle,” Jensen said. “We’ve been OK with that and scored maybe one more time.

“I probably said it four times that this game wasn’t going to end 6-0. We needed to keep scoring. DCG beat these guys 10-0. We needed to have a statement win like that, too.”

Mattes completed the hat trick in the 48th minute. He scored on another header following a Lampe corner kick.

It was Mattes’ seventh goal of the season and Lampe’s 20th assist, which ranks first in the state. His 34 points rank first in 3A and fifth in Iowa.

“We’ve struggled to score on our set-piece opportunities so it was nice to see us capitalize on those,” Jensen said. “We’ve been working on them at practice but hadn’t been able to finish those in games. It was nice to see us do that tonight.”

Lampe said the team spent an entire practice on corner kicks last week. It showed on Tuesday as the Cardinals (8-2, 2-1 in the conference) scored at will from those spots on the pitch.

“I try to find guys who are making runs, but you also have to find the ball winners,” Lampe said. “Caleb, Christian and Conner go up and challenge it well.”

Landon Menninga scored his first goal of the season and the second of his career one minute after Mattes completed his hat trick. That made it 8-0.

Jacob Sweeney scored the final two goals of the night and his fourth and fifth this season. His first was lofted over the goalie’s arms from about 30 yards out.

The final goal of the match came off a deflection following a shot from McPartlin that was saved by Oskaloosa’s goalie Omar Garcia, who made 17 saves in the contest.

The match ended in the 51st minute due to the 10-goal mercy rule.

Lawson is up to 11 goals this spring, which ranks tied for second in 3A. His 23 points rank tied for sixth.

“People who scout us know who our big scorers are,” Jensen said. “But having six guys score in one match just helps show maybe they need to mark this guy on this night. It’s good to see not having to rely on the same guys every match.”

Notes: Newton posted its fourth shutout this season while also scoring a season-most 10 goals. … The Cardinals welcomed back Micah Mattes, who missed the first eight matches due to injury. But Cody Klein missed Tuesday’s match with an injury of his own. … Goalies Hunter Teague and Javin Doland combined to register the Cardinal shutout. … Oskaloosa dropped to 0-9 and 0-3 in the conference. The Indians have scored just six goals this spring.

Norwalk 2, Newton 1

The Cardinals couldn’t hold a halftime lead against Norwalk on Monday.

Lawson put the Cardinals in front in the 34th minute but the team went scoreless over the final 64 minutes during a 2-1 defeat in LHC action at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

“I thought we played really well,” Jensen said. “We had a lot of opportunities to win the game. I was disappointed we made simple mistakes on the goals they scored. But I am super proud of their efforts.”

The Cardinals lost Klein to an injury late in the contest, and the Warriors took advantage.

Norwalk (4-5, 3-0) tied the match on a free kick in the 55th minute and then won it with 2:07 to play in double overtime.

The Warriors are 13-2 against Newton since 2011. Since 2015, Norwalk has posted wins of 4-1, 3-0, 5-0, 5-1 and 6-0.

“If we compete like that, we’ll compete with anyone in the state,” Jensen said. “I want to be able to compete against the big dogs and we did that tonight. We’re closing the gap. We haven’t been too competitive against them in recent years.”

Lampe delivered the assist on Lawson’s goal and Teague made 10 saves in 80 minutes. The Cardinals took 14 shots and put nine of them on goal.

Drake Stageman and Eli Scavo scored the Norwalk goals. The Warriors took 13 shots.

“We got caught ball watching on the first goal,” Jensen said. “And we didn’t check our shoulder enough on the second one. Those are simple fundamental things we needed to do better.”