Gilbert’s ground game too much for Newton football

GILBERT — Iowa State recruit Will Hawthorne was too much for the Newton football team to handle on Friday night.

The Gilbert senior carried the ball 48 times for 248 yards and scored all four of the Tigers’ touchdowns during their 30-7 home win over the Cardinals.

Class 4A No. 8 Newton scored on its opening possession of the game, drove into the red zone on its second drive but had the ball for only 13 minutes, 3 seconds in the Class 4A District 4 loss.

“They did a nice job of chunking together drives,” Newton head football coach Andy Swedenhjelm said. “They were 4-for-4 on scoring touchdowns on long drives in the first half. We had a few mental mistakes that extended drives, and when you are playing teams like Gilbert you can’t afford to give them extra plays.”

Class 4A No. 9 Gilbert led 14-7 after one and 27-7 at halftime. The only points of the second half came on a 25-yard field goal by Gilbert’s Owen Mattson.

But the night belonged to Hawthorne. He had a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs in the first and second quarters, scored from 4 yards out with 46 seconds to go in the first and then capped the victory with an 11-yard TD run late in the first half.

Hawthorne leads 4A and ranks third in Iowa with 1,704 rushing yards and 24 rushing touchdowns. The Cardinals held him to 51 yards on seven carries in last year’s 21-2 victory.

Newton was limited to 86 rushing yards and only 3.9 yards per carry. The Cardinals also turned the ball over twice. Newton has committed at least two turnovers in all three of its losses.

Gilbert (7-1, 3-1 in the district) rushed for 369 yards and threw only one pass in the game. The Tigers had a 22-12 advantage in first downs.

“We did some decent things offensively,” Swedenhjelm said. “We had to press a little more than we’d like to and ended up behind the chains. We work best when we can stay on schedule and not have to press.”

Nick Milburn led the Cardinals with a career-best 21.5 tackles and 19 solo tackles. He ranks second in 4A with 88.5 tackles.

Caden Klein finished with nine tackles, Lincoln  Peterson tallied seven tackles and Peyton Rozendaal chipped in five tackles.

Damien Smith contributed 4.5 tackles, Derek Wermager, Colton Northcutt and Jace Auen each added four tackles and Trey Davidson collected three tackles.

Finn Martin led the Newton offense. He tied his career best with six catches and gained a career-high 120 yards. It was the second 100-yard receiving game of his prep career.

Martin leads the Cardinals (5-3, 2-2) with 28 catches and ranks ninth in 4A with 521 receiving yards.

Klein threw for 147 yards and one interception and rushed for 42 yards on nine carries.

Isaiah Hansen scored Newton’s touchdown from 5 yards out in the first and gained 27 yards on seven carries. Hansen also had an 18-yard catch.

“They did a nice job of rallying to the ball, and we need to do a better job of sustaining blocks,” Swedenhjelm said.

Newton, which did not have the services of starting tight end Skyler Milheiser, also got a 9-yard catch from Gabe Otto.

Gilbert was 10-of-14 on third down and 2-of-2 on fourth down. Ethan Rash gained 75 yards on seven carries and Blake Bell led the defense with 5.5 tackles.

The Cardinals will have to rely on their RPI to make the playoffs. Gilbert and Pella will play for the district title in Week 9.

Newton came into the week ranked 11th in the RPI but will likely drop a few spots after the loss.

The good news is all four of its non-district foes — ADM (7-1), Norwalk (5-3), Dallas Center-Grimes (2-6) and Marshalltown (2-6) — won their Week 8 games.

“We still need to try to get better,” Swedenhjelm said. “We have a lot of young guys with their best football ahead of them, and we have awesome seniors to honor at Senior Night next week.

“We need to control what we can control and see where that puts us. I feel good about our guys. We’ll respond and take care of business this week and see if our RPI is good enough.”