Cardinals fly past Bobcats on Homecoming

Newton senior Reilly Trease scored on the first play from scrimmage last week against Norwalk.

It took Trease and the Cardinals two plays to score on Friday, but a 66-yard touchdown run started a big night for the Newton football team.

The Cardinals dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, did not punt and recorded their first shutout of the season during a 35-0 home triumph over Marshalltown in front of a packed Homecoming crowd at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

“Explosive plays are fun. Getting momentum going early is important, too,” Trease said. “The blocks on the outside during that run were awesome. My teammates helped me out a lot, and I owe it all to them.”

Newton scored all 35 of its points in the first half. The Cardinals led 12-0 after one and never looked back.

It was Newton’s third straight win overall and the fourth in a row over the Bobcats, who dropped to 0-4 but were shut out for the first time this fall. The Cardinals have won six of the past seven in the series and have outscored Marshalltown 80-0 the past two seasons.

“I don’t think you can draw things up too much better except the turnovers,” Newton head football coach Andy Swedenhjelm said. “We did some nice things on both sides of the ball.”

It was the second straight week the Cardinals showed off an explosive offense.

Besides Trease’s 66-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage, Newton also got touchdown passes of 80 and 48 yards from Caden Klein to Cade Bauer and Finn Martin, respectively, and Isaiah Hansen sprinted 57 yards for a TD late in the second.

Klein added an 8-yard touchdown run in the first. He finished with 128 passing yards and two TDs on two completions, rushed for 21 yards and one score on two carries and caught a 20-yard pass from Hansen.

Klein ranks ninth in Class 4A with 653 passing yards and 10th with 411 rushing yards.

Hansen and Klein completed five total passes to five different players and six Cardinals rushed for at least 13 yards. Newton ran for 272 yards and averaged 9.4 yards per carry on 29 attempts.

“I think we’re playing really well, but we’re still hungry,” Trease said. “We still want more.”

The Newton defense is allowing 13.7 points per game this season. The group allowed one first down and only 11 yards at halftime. The Cardinals had a 14-2 advantage in first downs and out-gained the Bobcats 439-37 in the win.

Since scoring just eight points in the season-opening loss to ADM, Newton is averaging 31 points per game.

“The dynamic of this team has changed a lot. There were a lot of seniors who graduated and we had a bunch of new faces coming in,” Trease said. “Those first-game jitters are real. Especially first varsity game. Once we figured out that we could play some ball, it flipped. We have been playing out of our minds since.”

Hansen gained 103 yards and scored one TD on 11 carries to lead the ground game. He also was 3-of-3 through the air for 39 yards.

Trease’s only carry went for the 66-yard TD, Qhjuan Coley added 39 yards on 10 carries and Nick Thomason sprinted 30 yards on two carries.

Skyler Milheiser ran for 13 yards on his lone attempt, Bauer’s lone catch went for the 80-yard TD and Martin’s only grab went for the 48-yard touchdown.

Both Creighton Andrew and Gabe Otto grabbed their first career varsity catches in the second half. Andrew’s went for 11 yards, while Otto gained eight.

Martin leads Newton (3-1) with 17 catches and ranks sixth in 4A with 290 receiving yards.

“A lot of teams like to focus on (Martin),” Swedenhjelm said. “One of the reasons why (Bauer) was so wide open on his long touchdown was because three dudes ran to Finn. When you have dangerous weapons, you can set up a bunch of different things. If you have five or six guys who are dangerous with the ball in their hands, it’s hard to game plan for that.

“That’s kind of our philosophy. We want to get everyone some love and sometimes it will be one guy one night and another guy another night.”

The Newton defense dominated despite not having the services of starting linebacker and leading tackler Nick Milburn due to a minor injury. Trey Davidson also missed his second game.

“Nick will be fine,” Swedenhjelm said. “He was cleared to play, but we kept it safe. Best case for Trey is another two weeks.”

Christopher Deanda tallied a career-high nine tackles to lead the defense, while Lincoln Peterson collected 5.5 tackles, two sacks and two tackles for loss.

Derek Wermager chipped in five tackles, two sacks and two tackles for loss and Damien Smith posted three tackles, two sacks and two tackles for loss.

The Cardinals finished with six sacks in the game. Wermager’s three sacks in 2024 rank tied for second in 4A.

“We didn’t do anything special. We just got in there and put pressure on him when they did pass it,” Wermager said. “They look like a physical team on film, but once you get up to the line, they stand up a lot. They were doing some dirty chop blocks, but it was an easy shuck and shed and come off your guy and make a play.”

Peyton Rozendaal finished with four tackles, Klein and Jace Auen each had 3.5 tackles and Coleby Revell and Colton Northcutt registered three tackles.

Mochamad Pramana led Marshalltown (0-4) with four tackles and one fumble recovery.

The Bobcats’ defense did force three Newton turnovers, but the offense was just 2-of-13 on third down and rushed for 59 yards on 30 carries. Marshalltown committed six penalties for 35 yards.

“The defense played awesome. They fly around and they hit,” Swedenhjelm said. “Newton has a tradition of having fast, physical and tough kids. We try to embody that with our defense.

“Those coaches — Coach Richardson, Coach Ergenbright, Coach Harper and Coach Warner — do a great job working with them. Their work and how much they care about kids really proves itself on Friday nights.”

The Cardinals led 12-0 after the first, but it could have been much worse. They scored on their first drive but couldn’t convert the extra point.

Marshalltown snagged its interception on Newton’s second offensive drive, but the Cardinals answered with a six play, 41-yard touchdown drive on their third possession.

A fumble gave the ball back to Marshalltown in the second, but a 51-yard field goal attempt was unsuccessful.

Bauer’s 80-yard TD catch and run came on the very next play and then the Cardinals got a safety when Thomason tackled Marshalltown quarterback Jacob Hayes in the end zone.

The hosts got the ball at midfield on the next drive and Martin got loose for a 48-yard TD.

Newton’s final scoring drive came on its last possession of the second quarter. A four-play, 65-yard drive was capped by Hansen’s 57-yard TD run.

The turnovers are not concerning to Swedenhjelm. They are learning experiences for his squad.

“Our kids can’t be afraid of failure. At the end of the day, they are all coachable moments,” Swedenhjelm said. “On the interception, we were able to show our kids that it was because of our route separation.”

Jose Benitez is one of two returning starters on the offensive line. He’s also served as one of the squad’s hype men since moving to the district in February of 2023.

“Any chance I get, I just want to take in the moment with my guys,” Benitez said. “When I first moved here, I thought I was all alone. The seniors last year treated me so well that it felt like a true brotherhood that I’ve never had. I love this place. I love this team.”

Notes: Homecoming is a busy week with a lot of potential distractions. The football team made visits to three elementary schools and had a pep rally at the high school on Friday alone. “There’s a lot of things leading up to (the game),” Wermager said. “It can be easy to take your eye off the ball, but you just have to stay focused.” … Swedenhjelm tells his team to embrace the week. Some schools don’t get these kind of opportunities. “We didn’t have parades or an elementary pep rally at my high school,” Swedenhjelm said. “It’s a special experience for us. There will be a time in their lives when they are 40 years old and they’ll remember it with great memories. Our kids are pretty mature and they can lock in when it comes time to do so. We talked all week about embracing the moment, not doing anything dumb and being ready to play on Friday.”