:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/DTFDDJC2LM65NCVHNZZWDKFE5A.jpg)
On a crispy, cool September Friday night, the five Jasper County high school football teams played district game in Week 6 of the 2018 season. Newton and Colfax-Mingo each slipped for the first time in two district contests. Class 2A top-ranked Prairie City-Monroe stayed undefeated while Lynnville-Sully improved to 2-0 in district play. Baxter lost a district eight-man contest in a shootout.
Oskaloosa 56, Newton 20
OSKALOOSA — Newton High’s Cardinals had no answers for host Oskaloosa High’s Indians on Friday at Lacey Sports Complex. The two teams went into the Class 3A District 7 contest at 1-0 in district play.
Indian senior quarterback Cole Henry was 15-of-19 passing for 290 yards with four touchdowns in guiding Oskaloosa to a 56-20 win over Newton. The Indians added 190 yards rushing.
“We were beat by a better team tonight,” Newton head coach Ed Ergenbright said. “Yes, we got overwhelmed by their offense but they're a good defensive team also. They took away some of our key plays and we got in a hole quick.”
Ergenbright said the Cardinals will put this one behind them and concentrate on the final three games of the season. “We will stick together and get better at what we do,” he said.
The Indians' head coach is Jake Jenkins, a former Newton High player and son of former Cardinal head coach John Jenkins. Jake Jenkins played for Newton while Ergenbright was a defensvie back coach for Jenkins' father.
Oskaloosa (5-1) scored on the opening drive of the game and extended its lead to 21-0 by the 8:14 mark of the second quarter.
Newton put together a 79-yard scoring driving on its next possession. A big play was a 32-yard pass from junior quarterback Kyle Long to junior split end Julian Hotchkin to move into Oskaloosa territory.
Junior William Cheng and senior Josh Miller had strong runs to push the Cardinals to the Indians’ 6-yard line. Long pushed ahead for three yards then Josh Miller got another yard. Junior Dylan Farver bulled his way up the middle to cross the goal line from two yards out.
Josh Meyer kicked the extra point to make it 21-7 with 4:31 left. But just like that, the Indians struck again when Henry hit a quick short pass to Tyler Miller in the flat. Tyler Miller did the rest, going 64 yards for the TD.
Oskaloosa stopped Newton a forced a punt with 2:38 remaining in the first half. Five plays — four coming through the air — later the Indians held a 35-7 lead, which is where it stood at halftime.
“When teams spread us out like that and force us to tackle in space, we’re not very good. We work on tackling every single day in practice,” Ergenbright said.
The Cardinals came out and had a good third-quarter drive going with the runs of junior Logan Cummins and Long. Long connected with Hotchkin again to get to the Oskaloosa 48-yard line.
Newton was called for holding negating a long run by Cummins. Long passed to Cummins for a good gain but Oskaloosa’s Zaiyan Mumun hit Cummins, dislodging the ball and the Indians recovered the fumble.
Henry threw another short pass this time to Casey Hill. who also had two rushing TDs in the game, scampered 41 yards to paydirt with 9:06 left in the third quarter. From that point on the game was played under a running clock.
Oskaloosa scored on a 31-yard TD pass with 1:37 left in the period then had a scoop-and-score on another Newton fumble to push the lead to 56-7 on the final play of the third quarter.
Newton had an 80-yard scoring drive using the running of Josh Miller and sophomore Dakota Adams along with Cummins. The final 22 yards came on a pass from Long to Hotchkin of the TD with 5:45 on the clock and Meyer kicked the extra point.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Indians muffed the kick and Newton recovered the ball at the Oskaloosa 15. Josh Miller tacked on a 15-yard TD run but the kick failed for the final margin.
Oskaloosa’s win sets up a showdown in 3A District 7 next Friday against fifth-ranked Pella (6-0) in Oskaloosa. Both teams are 2-0 in district play after Pella beat South Tama, 56-6 Friday.
Newton fell to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in 3A District 7 play. The Cardinals host Grinnell (2-4, 1-1) next Friday. Grinnell beat Knoxville 19-7 in Friday’s other district game.
Newton's freshmen lost 54-49 when Oskaloosa scored a TD with less than a minute remaining in Friday's game.
Lynnville-Sully 32, Central Decatur 14
SULLY — Lynnville-Sully rallied two different times in the first half before pulling away in the final two quarters during a 32-14 home win in Class A District 8 action on Friday.
The Hawks trailed 8-2 and 14-8 in the game before scoring 24 unanswered points to win their third straight game.
Senior Gage Vander Leest rushed for 181 yards and four touchdowns on 33 carries. The Hawks rushed for 268 yards in the victory. Lynnville-Sully is now 2-0 in district play.
The Hawks opened the game with a safety after Central Decatur snapped the ball over Cole Pederson’s head on an attempted punt. Pederson was tackled in the end zone.
The Cardinals took the lead late in the first quarter. Tyke Walker set up Central Decatur’s TD with a 59-yard pass to Cauy Spidle. Walker finished the drive three plays later with a 1-yard TD run.
The L-S special teams blocked two punts on the night. The first one was blocked by senior Evan Squires, and the Hawks then drove 25 yards in four plays to tie the game at 8-all.
Vander Leest rushed all four times on the drive and scored on a 10-yard TD run with 7:02 to play until halftime.
The Cardinals came right back though on their next drive. A nine-play, 79-yard drive was capped by Spidle on an 8-yard TD run. Before that, Walker caught a 47-yard pass from Kaige Leymaster.
The Hawks had to punt on their next possession, but got the ball back when Pederson couldn’t handle the punt and lost the ball near midfield.
L-S couldn’t take advantage and punted four plays later. The Cardinals went three and out on their next possession, and another blocked punt set up the Hawks at the Cardinals’ 16-yard line.
Trying to score before the clock hit zero for halftime, the Hawks got a 4-yard run by Vander Leest on fourth down, and then he scored from 2 yards out as time expired. Senior Nate Stock added the two-point conversion to give L-S the 16-14 lead at halftime.
The game went to the fourth quarter with the same score.
L-S had a 39-yard TD run by senior Tyson Vander Linden taken off the board after a holding call. They punted two plays later.
Central Decatur earned two first downs on its next drive, but L-S forced a punt after a pair of sacks. Seniors Ty Breeden and Rylan James and Stock all had pieces of those sacks.
Starting its next drive on the Central Decatur 31-yard line, Vander Leest gained a first down on his first carry. However, the Hawks lost a fumble three plays later.
After time expired in the third quarter, the Cardinals were backed up deep in their own territory when James got another sack, this time in the end zone for another Hawk safety.
Lynnville-Sully put the game away on its next offensive series. The Hawks marched 52 yards on six plays, all Vander Leest carries on the ground. He capped the drive with a 21-yard TD run and that put the home team up 24-14.
The Cardinals turned the ball over on downs on their next series. L-S started at the Central Decatur 19-yard line and scored in four plays. Vander Leest went in from 9 yards out to make it 30-14 and then his 2-point conversion pushed the lead to 32-14.
Squires, the homecoming king, rushed for 55 yards on 11 carries. His 29-yard run on the Hawks’ final possession allowed L-S to run out the clock.
James finished with three sacks, a tackle for loss and four tackles in the win. Ethan Wyma had a team-high seven tackles, and Vander Linden had six tackles.
PCM 50, Saydel 7
DES MOINES — Wes Cummings tallied 148 total yards and scored three touchdowns to lead the Class 2A No. 1 Prairie City-Monroe football team to a 50-7 road win during 2A District 8 competition on Friday night.
The Mustangs led 50-0 at halftime and played the entire second half with a running clock. PCM improved to 6-0 on the season and 2-0 in district play.
PCM led 22-0 after one quarter. Reed Worth put the Mustangs on the board with a 27-yard TD run. Cummings made it 15-0 with an 11-yard TD run and Jarron Trausch scored on a 14-yard TD run to make it 22-0 with 4:51 left in the first.
The Mustangs scored four more times in the second quarter. Isaac Telfer scored on a 4-yard run, Cummings tallied his second TD run from 3 yards out and Preston Van Wyk scored on a 71-yard TD pass from Worth. Cummings’ final TD of the game came on a 61-yard catch from Worth.
Cummings rushed for 87 yards and three TDs on seven carries and had one catch for 61 yards and another score.
Worth was 4-for-7 through the air for 148 yards and two TDs. He rushed for 48 yards and a TD on three carries.
No starter played after halftime. Saydel scored its touchdown in the third quarter.
Nick Buswell led the defense with 5 1/2 tackles. Brycen Rogers and Nick Dredge both had interceptions and Payton Strovers had a fumble recovery.
PCM hosts Des Moines Christian next week in Monroe. Both teams are 2-0 in district play. The Lions are 5-1 overall.
Twin Cedars 66, Baxter 64
BUSSEY — Leading by 18 at halftime, the Baxter football team couldn’t finish the deal against Twin Cedars during a 66-64 road loss in Class 8-Man District 5 play.
The game was tied at 14-all after one quarter, but the Bolts scored 30 points to go up 44-26 at halftime.
Twin Cedars got within 50-42 after three quarters and completed the comeback with a 24-14 advantage in the fourth quarter.
The Bolts dropped to 1-5 overall and 1-3 in the district. Twin Cedars improved to 4-3 overall and 3-1 in district action.
Interstate 35 51, Colfax-Mingo 13
TRURO — In a matchup of two teams which came into the night with one combined loss, Interstate 35 stayed unbeaten with a 51-13 home win during Class 1A District 7 action.
The 1A No. 9 Roadrunners led 14-0 early and held a 31-13 lead at halftime. Colfax-Mingo was shut out in the second half.
The Tigerhawks fell to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in district play. Interstate 35 improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in district play. Pella Christian also is 2-0 in district games.