Cardinals, Panthers square off in finale

Running the football will be the norm on Friday night’s regular-season finale at Newton’s H.A. Lynn Stadium.

Newton High’s Cardinals are the top rushing team in Class 3A with 2,598 yards on 376 carries. They also lead 3A District 7 in team rushing.

The Cardinals wrap up the season with a 3A District 7 game against the Knoxville Panthers, who come in with the third-best rushing offense in the district and the lowest yards in passing. The Panthers have rushed for 1,347 yards this season.

Kickoff for the Cardinals’ Senior Night game against the Panthers is 7:30 p.m. Newton is 2-2 in district action and 4-4 overall. Knoxville has a 1-3 district mark and is 3-5 overall.

The freshman game starts at 4:45 p.m. on Friday.

“We have an opportunity to have a winning record for the third year in a row and our seniors have been apart of all three of those seasons — 6-3, 7-2 and hopefully 5-4. It will be a lot to look back to over their high school career and be proud of,” Newton head coach Ed Ergenbright said.

Ergenbright said Knoxville is a team heavy with the running game on offense. The Panthers show a wing-T look offensively. They moved from having the quarterback under center to in the shotgun.

“They made some adjustments during the season finding what is best for them. Their strength is in their offensive and defensive linemen,” Ergenbright said. “Knoxville plays solid defensively and we’ll have to block well against them.”

Newton’s rushing attack is led by senior Josh Miller’s 778 yards on 103 carries. Juniors Dylan Farver, William Cheng and Logan Cummins have piled up 493, 473 and 363 yards, respectively, running out of the Cardinals gun-rocket offense.

Junior quarterback Kyle Long guides the Newton offense, which features sweeps to the edges and power runs up the middle. Long has gained 109 yards on the ground. He is 41-of-83 passing for 663 yards with three TD passes and three interceptions.

One big concern the Newton offense has dealt with this season is penalties, especially false starts. Those five-yard infractions have hampered drives by the Cardinal offense.

“We focused on getting us fixed. We’ve come up with a solution for the false starts. We’re going to try it, and it may be something we can use moving forward,” Ergenbright said. “This week has been better — we haven’t had a false start in practice.”

Another focal point for the Cardinal offense has been hanging onto the ball. Newton lost five fumbles a week ago against Pella.

“We defend better against teams which run the ball than pass it. Knoxville is going to run the ball. We have to tackle better, which is something we’ve struggled with,” Ergenbright said. “We have to be tougher at the point of attack. We’ve struggled at the linebacker positions which is not a knock on the kids who are playing linebacker for us. We just haven’t been able to hit the gaps and make a tackle.”

Knoxville has a smaller squad than Newton. Senior Cristian Magana is the Panther quarterback and he has thrown for 227 yards, completing 19-of-45 pass attempts. Sophomore Kieren Nichols is the Panther’s top rusher with 484 yards on 81 carries.

The Panthers also have junior Carter Bailey with 311 yards and sophomore Keegan Cox with 254 yards on the ground. Their top receiver is sophomore Mike Hudson with 14 catches for 146 yards.

Senior linebacker Thomas Cox is Newton’s top tackler with 34 solo stops and 16 assisted tackles. He has 2.5 quarterback sacks and 8.5 tackles for loss this season. Senior defensive end Mason Lee has 28 solo tackles and 17 assisted tackles with 11.5 tackles for loss. He also has 2.5 quarterback sacks.

Jaise Gulling, senior defensive end, had five solo quarterback sacks this season. He has 23 solo tackles and 13 assisted tackles. Senior defensive back Reece Caves has 22 solo tackles and junior defensive back Camden Winther has 28 solo tackles. Senior linebacker Austin Romberg has 4.5 quarterback sacks.

Ergenbright said the Panthers use a 3-5-3 defense with three defensive linemen and five linebackers. He said they looked big and physical up front and overall are very active on defense. The Panthers defense has six fumble recoveries and nine interceptions this season.

Senior Ben Olson leads the Panther defense with 46 solo tackles and 27 assisted tackles and has three fumble recoveries. Junior Blaise Hubler has 25 solo stops and 21 assisted tackles. Junior Kyle Ramsey has 21 solo stops and 16 assisted tackles.

“We want our seniors to go out with a win and everybody is on board with making that happen,” Ergenbright said. “These seniors will have the opportunity to have a third straight year to finish third in district play, which is not bad considering we finished third to Valley and Southeast Polk two years in row and now to Pella and Oskaloosa.”

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com