Tigers hand Cardinals first loss

GILBERT — Two turnovers and two fourth-and-four plays turned the tide in a battle of Iowa Class 3A ranked teams Friday night. Newton High’s 10th-ranked Cardinals carried a 22-15 lead into halftime.

Not much good happened on the Gilbert Tiger Stadium field after that for the visiting Cardinals. Gilbert’s Tigers, ranked No. 9, scored three touchdowns to claim the lead en route a 42-29 win. The Tigers handed the Cardinals their first loss of the season. It came in Class 3A District 6 play.

Newton went into the district clash with a just four turnovers in its first four games. The Cardinals had made eight fumble recoveries and four interceptions in those four games. Gilbert had only four takeaways — two interceptions and two fumble recoveries — in its first four games.

On Friday night, the Tigers ripped the football away from the Cardinals three times — one interception and two fumble recoveries.The Cardinals recovered one Tiger fumble.

“You can’t make mistakes like that against a good team. We’ve just got to get better,” said Ed Ergenbright, Newton head coach, after the loss. “We didn’t execute very well tonight on either side of the football. We didn’t block the right people up front on offense. We weren’t assignment sound on defense. We just have to get better.”

Newton opened the game by forcing a punt after a long touchdown run by Gilbert was nullified with a holding penalty by the Tigers. But four plays later, J.T. Thongvanh lost the handle on the football and Gilbert’s Logan Clancy recovered the fumble.

Again, the Cardinal defense held and forced a punt. Newton’s offense took over on its own 19-yard line. Thongvanh ripped off an 11-yard run on third down to keep the drive going. Tyler Wood scrambled away from pressure and raced 56 yards to the Gilbert 17.

An 8-yard run by Deonne Harris put the Cardinals closer to the goal line. On first-and-goal, Tristan Peters pushed through to the end zone from five yards out. Nick Easley kicked the extra point for a 7-0 lead at the 3:04 mark.

Gilbert was playing without all-state quarterback and linebacker Jared Geschedler, who suffered a season-ending injury the week before. Enter Cole Drzycimski. Drzycimski’s play at quarterback and the running of Cody Dvorak was enough to guide the Tigers to victory.

Drzycimski engineered an 80-yard touchdown drive for the Tigers, finishing it with a one-yard quarterback keeper across the goal line at the 9:19 mark of the second quarter. Dvorak bulled across for a two-point conversion to put Gilbert up 8-7.

Back came the Cardinals. Wood got to the edge, left a string of Tiger defenders on the ground in his wake on a 44-yard touchdown run. Wood found Easley in the end zone for the two-point conversion to lift the Cardinals to a 15-8 lead with 7:52 remaining in the first half.

Dvorak broke tackles in the backfield and had a 29-yard gain for the Tigers on their next possession. Wyatt Rhoads, a wide receiver, took the handoff on a reverse play and raced 19 yards. Dvorak had runs of 14 yards and 13 yards to get to the Newton 1-yard line. Dvorak scored the touchdown from there and Jacob Huston kicked the tying point through the uprights.

Taking more than four minutes off the clock, the Cardinals marched down the field to break the 15-15 tie. The running of Harris, Peters and Thongvanh worked the Newton offense from its own territory.

Wood connected with tight end Jordan Travis for 13 yards on a fourth-and-nine pass play. Wood finished off the drive with a 14-yard run to the corner of the end zone, diving to get the football across for the touchdown. Easley’s kick put the Cardinals up 22-15 with 1:05 on the clock.

Gilbert threatened to score before the break. A hook-and-lateral play put the Tigers on the Newton 28 with 15 seconds left. Back-to-back quarterback sacks by Travis and Patrick Murphy helped the Cardinal defense deny the Tigers and protected the NHS lead.

“Our scoring plays in the first half came when Tyler scrambled away from pressure. We’re allowing too much pressure to get through to the backfield,” Ergenbright said. “We will just keep working on our blocking and moving forward this week.”

Wood rushed for 143 yards on 17 carries in the game. He was 7-of-16 passing for 120 yards. Thongvanh had 50 yards on seven carries and Harris had 41 yards on eight carries. The Cardinals were without Joseph Banfield, who was sidelined with a hand injury.

Thongvanh had three catches for 29 yards and Easley had two receptions for 53 yards.

Wood was intercepted on the first drive of the third quarter, when the football was tipped up in the air. Huston missed a field goal attempt for Gilbert.

On the next Newton possession, Thongvanh fumbled and Gilbert recovered the football at the Newton 23-yard line. One play is all the Tigers needed to tie the game as Dax Hatfield bolted to the end zone and Huston kicked the extra point.

Newton moved the football to the Gilbert 36 but came up short on a fourth-and four on an incomplete pass play. Gilbert took over with 3:52 on the third-quarter clock and scored on a 12-yard pass from Drzycimski to Rhoads at the 10:53 mark of the fourth quarter.

Trailing 29-22, the Cardinals had a good start on runs by Peters and Harris. On a third-and-20 play, Jake Bennett came back to the football for a 16-yard gain. Wood came up inches short on a fourth-and-four play at the Gilbert 48.

Five plays later, the Tigers got a 6-yard touchdown run by Dvorak. Gilbert led 36-22 with 6:13 left in the game.

On the ensuing kickoff, Gilbert was penalized 15 yards for a personal foul, which put the Cardinals on the Gilbert 48-yard line. Easley got behind a Tiger defender and Wood hitting him with a pass in stride for the quick touchdown strike. Easley’s kick made it 36-29 with 5:55 on the clock.

The Cardinals had one more opportunity to tie the game when Wood stripped the football away from Dvorak with 3:11 left. The problem was they were 95 yards away from the goal line. Wood got almost 12 yards on and third-and-12 play.

Newton went for it on fourth-and-inches at the Newton 14-yard line. Peters was stopped short and three plays later Huston kicked a 32-yard field goal to extend Gilbert’s lead.

Newton failed on another fourth down play, allowing the Tigers to kick a 35-yard field goal as time expired.

Murphy led the Cardinal defense with seven solo tackles and one assisted tackle plus a quarterback sack. Thongvanh had six solo tackles and four assisted tackles and Travis made seven solo stops. They both had a quarterback sack. Bryce Tish made five solo tackles and five assisted tackles. Wood made five solo stops and one assisted tackle and had a fumble recovery.

The 4-1 Cardinals are on the road again Friday against sixth-ranked Ballard (5-0) in Class 3A District 6 action. Newton is 2-1 in district play and Ballard is 2-0.

Contact Sports Editor Jocelyn Sheets at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com.

Newton  7-15-0-7—29

Gilbert  0-15-7-20—42

Newton — Peters 5 yd run (Easley kick)

Gilbert — Drzycimski 1 yd run (Dvorak run)

Newton — Wood 44 yd run (Easley pass from Wood)

Gilbert — Dvorak 1 yd run (Huston kick)

Newton — Wood 14 yd run (Easley kick)

Gilbert — Hatfield 23 yd run (Huston kick)

Gilbert — Rhoads 12 yd pass from Drzycimski ( Huston kick)

Gilbert — Dvorak 6 yd run (Huston kick)

Newton — Easley 47 yd pass from Wood (Easley kick)

Gilbert — Huston 32 yd field goal

Gilbert — Huston 35 yd field goal

Newton  Gilbert

`18  First Downs  23

41-247  Rushes-yds  44-270

120  Passing yds  145

367  Total Offense  415

7-16-1  Passing  13-19-0

4/2  Fumbles/lost  1/1

6-41  Penalties-yds  7-65

0-0  Punts-avg.  2-42.5

Individual Leaders

Rushing: Newton-Wood 17-143, Thongvahn 7-50, Harris 8-41, Peters 7-16, Easley 1-(-2). Gilbert-Dvorak 27-156, Rhoads 3-49, Drzycimski 13-66, Hatfield 1-23.

Passing: Newton-Wood 7-16-120-1. Gilbert-Drzycimski 13-19-145-0.

Receiving: Newton-Thongvanh 3-29, Easley 2-53, Bennett 1-15, Travis 1-13. Gilbert-Rhoads 9-74, Hatfiled 2-40, Blum 1-13, Dvorak 1-23.

Punting: Newton-none. Gilbert-Hatfield 2-85 (42.5 yd avg.)

Newton Defense

Tackles (solo/assisted): Murphy 7/1; Thongvanh 6/4; Travis 7/0; Tish 5/5; Wood 5/1; Easley 4/2; Wolf 4/1; Peters 3/0; Miller 2/0; Stanton 1/0; Lee 1/0.

Quarterback sacks (solo/assisted): Murphy 1/0; Thongvanh 1/0; Travis 1/0.

Interceptions: none

Fumbles (forced/recovered): Wood 0/1.