Cardinals can’t overcome slow start in season-opening loss to ADM

Newton head football coach Andy Swedenhjelm is excited about what his team can learn following a 49-21 home loss to ADM on Friday.

The Cardinals started slow and couldn’t overcome a dominant rushing attack by the Tigers at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

But, Newton will learn more from this loss than it would have from a blowout win.

“We don’t want to flush it. We want to learn from it, and we are excited about that,” Swedenhjelm said. “We could have played a team that wouldn’t have challenged us as much, made the same mistakes and won by 40. But we wouldn’t have learned anything from it.”

The Tigers, who reached the Class 3A state semifinals last year before moving up to 4A this fall, led 28-0 at halftime and kicked on the continuous clock with an early score in the third.

Newton had more first downs (18-17) and dominated the time of possession (29:20 to 18:40), but the Tigers registered touchdown runs of 33, 30, 25, 67 and 88 yards. And another score came on a 25-yard pass.

Iowa recruit Brevin Doll had a solid night, but Aiden Flora also rushed for 165 yards, threw for 85 more and scored four total touchdowns.

Hudson Shull capped the victory with an 88-yard touchdown sprint in the fourth quarter.

“We haven’t had a lot of experience tackling live people at this point in the season,” Swedenhjelm said. “That can get better. We were going against really good players and tried to tackle them high. It’s fixable stuff and technique issues.”

The Cardinals went three and out on their first possession following ADM’s first touchdown drive. The Tigers then pushed their advantage to 14-0 midway through the first quarter.

Newton marched 83 yards on its next possession, but the drive stalled at the ADM 1-yard line after Eli Stewart was stopped short of the goal line on fourth down.

The drive started with back-to-back false starts, but Finn Martin’s first varsity catch went for 52 yards. A lot of that came after the catch as Caleb Mattes hit him in stride down the middle of the field.

“They are a really good team, and they made some really big plays tonight,” Swedenhjelm said. “We made big plays at times but couldn’t capitalize in key game-turning plays.

“There were a lot of false starts. We kind of hurt ourselves there.”

ADM (1-0) was forced to punt after starting its drive at its own 1-yard line. However, Newton gave the ball right back to the Tigers following another three and out.

Another key play in the game came on the Tigers’ next drive. After Newton’s defense forced a punt, a bad snap resulted in a 33-yard run by ADM punter Easton Korell.

That gave the visitors a first down and Doll scored on a 30-yard run one play later.

Doll, who broke several tackles on the play, finished with 128 rushing yards and two scores on 14 carries and grabbed three catches for 34 yards and another score.

“The big difference in this game was really five or six key plays that hurt us,” Swedenhjelm said. “Not punching it in on the goal line, throwing a pick and the bad snap they had on a fourth down that they gained 30 yards on were all big plays against us.”

Cody Klein answered Flora’s 25-yard touchdown run in the third with a 16-yard TD run that put the Cardinals on the board.

But the momentum was short-lived as Flora scored on a 67-yard TD run on the Tigers’ next possession.

Mattes and Klein both rushed for more than 100 yards in the loss. The duo hooked up for a 50-yard pitch and catch on Newton’s next possession. It came on third and three and set up Mattes’ 1-yard TD plunge a few plays later.

Mattes gained 113 yards and scored two TDs on his 18 carries and was 9-of-29 through the air for 191 yards and an interception.

Klein rushed for 106 yards and one score on 19 carries and hauled in three passes for 82 yards.

The Cardinals (0-1) capped their scoring midway through the fourth. Mattes highlighted the drive with a 17-yard run, a 17-yard pass to Martin and a 7-yard TD run.

“We kind of tweaked a few things we were doing a little bit, too,” Swedenhjelm said. “We went to some of our adjustments and they worked pretty well. We won’t stop trying from a coaches’ perspective or a players’ perspective.”

Newton finished with 237 rushing yards and 191 passing yards. The Cardinals were 4-of-13 on third down and committed eight penalties for 56 yards.

Martin’s first career varsity start at tight end produced five catches for 110 yards. Christian Ergenbright also rushed for 19 yards on four carries.

Caden Klein registered a team-best 6.5 tackles in his varsity starting debut at linebacker.

Nate Lampe added four tackles and an interception, while Stewart and Nathan Milburn both collected four tackles. Damien Smith and Treyton Davidson each finished with three tackles.

“We were a team not a lot of teams wanted to play. They were a team not a lot of teams wanted to play,” Swedenhjelm said. “I’m glad we were able to match up with each other. Both teams figured some things out. It was a good learning experience for us.”

Notes: The first Associated Press poll comes out on Tuesday. Both teams started the season ranked in the top 10 in 4A by multiple outlets. … The Tigers rushed for 459 yards and averaged 12.8 yards per carry in the win. … Zach Lohmann had an interception on defense and also hauled in a 46-yard catch for ADM.