State-ranked Bluejays too much for Newton football

The Newton football team needed to play a clean game and execute in all three phases against Class 4A No. 4 Bondurant-Farrar on Friday night.

But three turnovers on their first three possessions put the Cardinals in a hole they were unable to dig out of during a 42-21 home loss at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

The Bluejays forced five turnovers in the Class 4A District 4 opener for both teams.

“You can’t do that against any team, especially a good team,” Newton head football coach Andy Swedenhjelm said. “You can’t start out that way. I think our guys were maybe a little over-amped and didn’t go back to the fundamentals. They maybe tried to do too much right away.

“I was proud of how our kids fought back and made it a really competitive game.”

After the first quarter, both teams scored 21 points each. The Bluejays outscored the Cardinals 21-0 in the first though.

Bondurant-Farrar had a 21-14 advantage in first downs, outgained Newton 435-306 and was plus-three in the turnover battle.

Caleb Mattes threw three picks on the Cardinals’ first three possessions and Bondurant-Farrar turned the miscues into 21 points.

The visitors rushed for 234 yards and averaged 6.2 yards per carry. The B-F defense had three sacks and seven tackles for loss.

The Bluejays marched 62 yards in six plays on their opening drive. A 37-yard pass play from Jordan Rial to Reed Pfaltzgraff highlighted the possession and Titus Cram capped it off with a 6-yard touchdown run.

Bondurant-Farrar made it 14-0 after going 29 yards in six plays after the second Newton turnover.

Cram scored again from 2 yards out, but a Caleb Moore 20-yard gain on a screen pass from Rial on fourth and 13 kept the drive alive.

The next drive featured just two plays. Pfaltzgraff caught an 11-yard pass and Cram scored on a 13-yard reception.

Cram finished with 169 yards and four touchdowns on 25 carries, snagged a 13-yard TD, booted a pair of touchbacks and registered 8.5 tackles on defense to lead the Bluejays.

Pfaltzgraff tallied three interceptions on defense and finished with 171 receiving yards and a touchdown on eight catches.

“I think what separates good teams from great teams is their ability to make big plays,” Swedenhjelm said. “They just made a few more plays than we did. I feel really good about what we were trying to do. We just didn’t execute.”

The Cardinal defense played much better in the second. The offense also got on the scoreboard.

Newton’s first possession of the period featured 87 yards in seven plays. The team’s initial first down came on a 12-yard pass from Mattes to Finn Martin with 11:12 on the clock.

Four plays later, Mattes hooked up with Cody Klein on a 59-yard touchdown pass.

The Cardinals got the ball back when Peyton Rozendaal picked off Rial to set the offense up at their own 35-yard line.

Mattes ran the ball seven times in the team’s nine plays, but Newton turned the ball over on downs after picking up two first downs.

A fumbled handoff by the Bluejays that was recovered by Newton’s Coleby Revell gave the ball back to the Cardinals. But two missed opportunities right before halftime kept the home team behind by two scores.

Klein dropped a long pass from Mattes in the end zone and then Christian Lawson couldn’t convert a 40-yard field goal.

“I definitely think if we catch that ball it’s a completely different game,” Swedenhjelm said. “Cody is a kid who makes plenty of plays and does a lot of good things. You can’t blame him for his effort. Plays like that happen sometimes.”

The Bluejays (4-1, 1-0 in the district) pushed their lead to 28-7 after scoring on their first possession of the second half.

Bondurant-Farrar went 73 yards — all on the ground — in eight plays. Cram ran for 52 of them and scored on an 11-yard run.

The Cardinals answered with their best drive of the game on their first possession of the third.

They went 72 yards in 16 plays and Mattes ran it nine times for 40 yards. He also connected with Martin for a 16-yard gain on fourth and eight before a pass interference against Martin set up Newton inside the 10-yard line.

Martin capped the drive with a 4-yard TD catch from Mattes and the Lawson extra point trimmed the deficit to 28-14 with 1:37 to go in the third.

Bondurant-Farrar needed two plays to answer the Cardinals though. After a 1-yard run by Cram, Rial connected with Pfaltzgraff on a deep ball that resulted in a 79-yard touchdown with 55 seconds on the clock.

Neither team scored again until Klein made a big play on the ground. He capped a six-play, 80-yard drive with a 68-yard TD run down the home sidelines. The possession also included a 5-yard pass from Mattes to Martin and a 7-yard completion to Klein on fourth and five.

The Bluejays rushed for 65 yards in their four plays on their next possession, but a holding penalty put the visitors behind the sticks and the Cardinals (2-3, 0-1) eventually forced a turnover on downs.

Unfortunately, Bondurant-Farrar got the ball back two plays later when Talon Hayworth took the ball away from Christian Ergenbright on a pass from Mattes and returned the ball inside the red zone.

Cram put the game out of reach three plays later when he scored on a 1-yard run.

“A play or two here or there and it’s a completely different game,” Swedenhjelm said. “The defense did all right. It was a slow start. They played really well in the second quarter and then Bondurant-Farrar made some adjustments at halftime to tweak how they were doing some things.

“We just didn’t play fundamental football at times. And you can’t win a lot of games if you don’t have good fundamentals.”

Klein finished with 99 yards and a touchdown on eight carries and hauled in three passes for 70 yards and another score.

Mattes gained 99 yards on 25 carries, caught a 12-yard pass from Ergenbright and was 9-of-28 through the air for 96 yards, two touchdowns and four picks.

Martin grabbed five passes for 30 yards and a TD. Newton was 3-of-4 on fourth down and 5-of-12 on third down.

Nathan Milburn led the Newton defense with nine tackles, Nate Lampe had eight tackles and Caden Klein registered 7.5 tackles.

Revell finished with four tackles, one sack and a fumble recovery, Eli Stewart tallied 4.5 tackles, Ben Breuer registered one sack and Rozendaal snagged an interception.

Lampe returned a kickoff 25 yards and Lawson was 3-of-3 in extra points and registered a pair of touchbacks.

“We will keep competing. I’m still really excited about another opportunity,” Swedenhjelm said. “Nothing is a loss after this. We still have plenty of things to play for and fight for. I think 4A is still wide open.”

The Cardinals and Bluejays played on live television through WHO-TV 13.

It’s the only 4A game on the schedule for play-by-play commentator Keith Murphy, color commentator Justin Surrency and sideline reporter Andy Fales.

“It was a fun environment. I talk to the kids all the time about embracing the moment and enjoying the opportunity that we have,” Swedenhjelm said. “They might have had some nerves. I won’t make excuses and blame that. We just needed to perform better. We need to come out of the locker room better. If we do that, we can be a really good team. And I think we can still do a lot of really great things this year.”

Notes: Rial was 12-of-16 through the air for 218 yards, two scores and one interception for the Bluejays. Moore gained 73 yards on his eight carries and registered 8.5 tackles and Hayworth added five tackles to his interception. … Bondurant-Farrar now ranks second in 4A with 1,200 rushing yards. Cram’s 800 rushing yards rank fourth in 4A and his 11 TDs are tied for second. … The Bluejays have won four straight games since dropping their season opener to North Polk. … Newton fell to 0-3 against B-F since 2014.