New-look Cardinals fall to Des Moines North in soccer exhibition

DES MOINES — The 2025 version of the Newton boys soccer team is a work in progress.

The Cardinals welcomed back only one full-time starter from last year’s 12-win squad and so far this season the inexperience has shown on the pitch.

Newton played 160 minutes in two exhibition matches and did not score a goal, but head coach Zach Jensen is more concerned with the defensive end of the field right now.

“I don’t know if we got to see from the guys up top what they can do because we didn’t find them enough,” Jensen said. “We had a couple opportunities but not enough to win soccer games.

“We can’t give up that many goals on the other end either. We have to first focus on limiting goals before I’m worried about the attacking side of things.”

The Cardinals trailed Des Moines North 2-0 at halftime on Friday before falling to the Polar Bears, 7-0, at Mediacom Stadium. That came after Newton lost, 1-0, to Washington on Monday.

Friday also was the only scrimmage four-year starter Landon Bozarth played in. Jensen is working in a new goalie and no other position on the field has officially been filled.

“We’re learning a lot every day. We learned a lot today,” Jensen said. “We got taken to the woodshed, but it’s all right. It’s an exhibition. It doesn’t count towards our record. That’s a good side, too.

“We’ve learned that we can build up and pass, but we’re not as accurate as we need to be right now. We’re turning the ball over too much.”

Des Moines North was the better team on Friday, but the Cardinals did play the exhibition without projected starter Christian Buchli and key reserves Talon Currie and Asher Rhoads.

“Everything is still open in the book,” Jensen said. “The shape is open and spots on the field are open. We were missing some guys tonight. We didn’t have much depth.

“It’s a work in progress. We didn’t possess the ball good enough to have enough shots on goal. We bit ourselves on the tongue when we built it back out of the back and into the middle.”

The Cardinals get things going for real on the road against conference rival Norwalk on Tuesday. They also host Marshalltown on Thursday and host their annual home tournament on Saturday.