Late touchdown pushes Decorah past Newton football

DECORAH — Frustration.

That’s what the Newton football team mostly felt after its 15-14 playoff loss to Class 4A No. 2 Decorah on Friday night.

The Cardinals had many opportunities to put away the undefeated Vikings but came up short on a few key situations in their postseason opener at Vikings Stadium.

“You think you do everything right and do a lot of good stuff, but sometimes it’s not your time,” Newton head football coach Andy Swedenhjelm said. “There’s two times we should have been up at least 21-7. We got stopped four times from the 2-yard line and then a touchdown was taken off the board because of a penalty.

“We feel like should have won this game by 10 or 14 points, but sometimes things happen that you can’t really control.”

The fact that Newton couldn’t cash in on a few opportunities in each half came back to bite them in the end.

The Cardinals scored first, led the 14-7 at halftime and had the ball with the lead with less than 3 minutes on the clock in the fourth quarter but couldn’t finish the deal.

Newton’s first possession of the game ended on a lost fumble by Caden Klein on a strip sack by Decorah.

And with the Cardinals in front by seven with the ball deep in their own territory, the Vikings forced another fumble against Skyler Milheiser inside the 10-yard line.

The Cardinals turned the ball over three times in the game, did not score on a 12-play drive that started on their own 2-yard line at the end of the first half and came up short at the goal line on a 15-play drive to start the second half.

One touchdown on either of those two long drives probably would have been enough to advance.

“We felt great at halftime,” Swedenhjelm said. “We talked about how important it was to come out and get a stop, which we did. We talked about how we were going to eat up some clock.

“It was working to perfection, but we just didn’t get the chance to punch it in when we had four opportunities inside the 2-yard line. When you try to play championship-level football, you don’t win games if you can’t do that. That’s what we have to get better at, some of those margin things.”

Decorah improved to 5-0 in games decided by eight points or less, while Newton dropped to 1-3.

The Cardinals (6-4) also turned the ball over at least twice in all four of their losses.

Newton scored on its third possession of the game. The visitors started at the Decorah 41-yard line after they forced the Vikings into a three and out after an impressive punt by Zach Felten pinned them deep in their own territory.

A 5-yard run by Qhjuan Coley on fourth and one moved the chains and then Klein connected with Milheiser for a 25-yard gain.

That put the ball inside the Decorah 5-yard line and Klein powered the ball into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown run on fourth and goal.

The Vikings’ best offensive play of the game came on their next possession. Gavin Groux got loose for an 84-yard touchdown run and the extra point put the hosts in front 7-6 with 5:47 to go until halftime.

Newton answered right back though. Reilly Trease returned the ensuing kickoff 92 yards for the score. A two-point conversion run by Nick Thomason pushed the advantage to 14-7.

Trease bobbled the ball at first but used his speed to get to the outside. He broke a few tackles around midfield before sprinting down the Decorah sideline for the go-head touchdown. It was the team’s second 90-plus yard kickoff return touchdown of the season.

“We spend a lot of time on kickoff return. I think we are pretty good at it, and the guys take a lot of pride in it,” Swedenhjelm said. “Reilly is a big play machine, but there’s a lot of dirty work that goes into that. The return guy gets the glory, but our blockers did a really good job sealing the edge. Sometimes when the ball bobbles around, the tacklers out-run their coverage, too.”

Decorah got a first down on a 32-yard pass play from Tanner Caddell to Noah Milburn on its next possession, but the Cardinals got another defensive stop.

Milburn’s punt was downed at the Newton 2-yard line, but the Cardinals marched down the field following a 9-yard run by Milheiser, two straight first-down runs from Thomason and a 14-yard pass from Klein to Milheiser.

Klein converted a fourth and one with a 3-yard run, but three incomplete passes and a negative-yardage run play turned the ball over on downs after 12 plays.

The Vikings, who trailed at halftime for the first time this season, opened the second half with a 12-play drive that also ended in a turnover on downs. Decorah got two first-down runs from Trevor Kuennen and Caddell converted a fourth and two with a 5-yard run.

But the drive stalled four plays later. It ended after Klein tipped a Caddell pass on fourth down.

Starting on its own 26-yard line, Newton marched 73 yards in 15 plays on its next drive.

Milheiser began the drive with back-to-back runs that netted nine yards. Klein moved the chains with a 2-yard run and then connected with Milheiser for 28 yards and another first down.

A 4-yard run by Klein resulted in another first down and his 14-yard pass to Trease on third and 13 kept the drive alive. But it came after a touchdown pass to Finn Martin was taken off the board due to an illegal formation penalty against Cade Bauer. It was Newton’s only flag of the night.

A 7-yard run by Klein later in the possession set Newton up with a first and goal from the 1-yard line. Coley and Klein each ran the ball twice out of the shotgun formation in the next four plays, but Decorah (10-0) came up with a game-saving goal line stand.

The two teams then traded punts on their next two possessions. Newton’s drive was a three and out, but Felten again pinned the Vikings at the 2-yard line.

Decorah got a 10-yard run from Groux, Caddell connected with Milburn for 25 yards and completed a 20-yard pass to Carter Dlhy. That got the hosts past midfield, but Peyton Rozendaal snagged his fourth interception of the season two plays later to halt the possession.

The Vikings tried to catch the Cardinals off guard with a halfback pass, but Kuennen threw it into double coverage and Rozendaal made the diving pick.

However, Milheiser fumbled on the very next play from scrimmage to give the ball back to Decorah at the Newton 6-yard line.

Kuennen opened the possession with a 5-yard run and Caddell ended it with a 1-yard touchdown on a quarterback sneak on fourth and one.

The Vikings lined up to kick the tying extra point. But with an unbalanced line to the right, Tommy Sexton got behind the defense on the opposite side of the field and his 2-point conversion catch from Caleb Krieg put the Vikings in front by one with 58.2 seconds to play in the game.

“My heart breaks for (Milheiser),” Swedenhjelm said. “He works extremely hard. He was playing a heck of a game and unfortunately it’s wasn’t a good time to have that. He’s internalizing it pretty bad, but he’s a great kid and he’ll bounce back from it.”

Milheiser put together the best offensive game of his career before the turnover. He finished with 23 yards on six carries and matched a career-best with four catches for a career-high 52 yards.

Newton got one final chance to win the game late, but its final two plays of the game ended in a sack and an interception.

The Cardinals finished with 138 rushing yards on 40 carries and 137 passing yards. They had a 15-11 advantage in first downs, but Decorah out-gained Newton 303-269.

Klein finished with 65 yards and one TD on 21 carries and was 10-of-18 through the air for 137 yards and one interception.

Martin hauled in three passes for 40 yards, Thomason gained 29 yards on his three carries and Coley caught two passes for 31 yards. Trease’s only catch was the 14-yarder on third and 13.

“We made some tweaks recently to make it look like our option looks,” Swedenhjelm said about the passing game. “We played off that really well, our play action looked good and as our guys continue to grow, the sky is the limit because we have most of those dudes back next year.”

Nick Milburn led the Cardinal defense with 9.5 tackles, while Damien Smith contributed six tackles and one sack.

Rozendaal added five tackles and one interception, Trey Davidson chipped in 6.5 tackles and Jace Auen tallied 5.5 tackles. Klein and Derek Wermager each totaled 3.5 tackles and Coleby Revell registered three tackles.

Groux led the Vikings with 93 rushing yards and one TD on two carries and six tackles on defense.

Gatlin Dahlberg added 8.5 tackles, one interception and one fumble recovery and Noah Milburn caught two passes for 57 yards.

“They didn’t do anything too different in the second half,” Swedenhjelm said. “They kind of submarined us a little bit more. There’s a lot of frustration. We need to think about what’s next, what happened and how we can do better.”

Notes: Newton finished 6-4 for the second straight season. … Decorah advanced to the 4A quarterfinals where it will host sixth-ranked North Scott (8-2) at 7 p.m. on Nov. 8 in Decorah. The Vikings are 10-0 for the first time since 2013. They finished that season 11-1, went 14-0 in 2012 and ended 11-3 in 2011. … The Cardinals averaged 39 points per game in their six wins and 14 points per game in the four losses.