Newton boys post two draws at home tournament

When the Iowa High School Athletic Association announced prep soccer would eliminate overtimes and introduce draws to regular-season matches, Newton head boys soccer coach Zach Jensen expected both good draws and bad draws moving forward.

And it didn’t take too long for that to come to fruition as the Cardinals picked up a pair of draws at its home tournament at H.A. Lynn Stadium on Saturday.

Newton opened its day with a 2-2 tie against Central Iowa United and ended the tournament with a 1-1 draw with Benton Community.

“I feel like both draws were different, but I feel different about each of them, too,” Jensen said. “I thought we did enough to deserve to win against Benton, but we were fortunate to get a draw against Central Iowa United.”

The Cardinals had only one tie in program history before the two this weekend.

The best news of the day may have been the fact that Newton got on the offensive scoreboard for 2025.

The Cardinals trailed Central Iowa United 1-0 at halftime, but Parker Kennedy’s goal in the 52nd minute off a throw-in assist from Landon Bozarth was the first equalizer.

Jack Seyller put CIU in front 1-0 with a goal in the 23rd minute. That came off an assist from Colfax-Mingo’s Gage Byal.

Aidyn Short put Central Iowa United (0-2-1) back in front with a goal in the 59th minute. But Newton drew back even with a Connor Vest goal in the 80th minute. It came with 59 seconds to play off assists from Bozarth and Aiden Robson.

It was the first career varsity goals by Kennedy and Vest and the first career assist from Robson.

Class 3A Central Iowa United had narrow advantages in shots and shots on goal in the first half, but Newton took all three corner kicks.

The Cardinals (0-2-2) flipped the script in the second half and out-shot CIU 20-11 in the contest. Both teams took one corner in the second half.

“I just kept asking why in the first match,” Jensen said. “Our decision making was not very good. We didn’t play very well. Central Iowa United deserved to win, but we’ll take the draw.”

Javin Doland tallied eight saves in each of the two contests. He played all 80 minutes in goal in both matches and now leads 3A and ranks second in the state with 45 saves.

The Cardinals are now 7-0-1 against Benton since 2014. They took 30 shots and put 15 of them on goal but managed just one goal in the draw.

“That’s soccer. You can dominate a game and not win,” Jensen said. “We had plenty of opportunities but just couldn’t put it in the back of the net.”

Newton and Benton were scoreless at halftime, but Robson scored his first career varsity goal four minutes into the second half to give the Cardinals their first lead of 2025.

It remained 1-0 until the 77th minute. That’s when the 2A Bobcats got a penalty kick goal to pull even.

“We played our best match of the season so far against Benton,” Jensen said. “If we keep adding to our play from that one, we’ll be OK.”

Notes: Class 4A Ottumwa (3-1) went 2-0 to win the tournament. The Bulldogs defeated Benton 2-0 and downed Central Iowa United, 6-0. Benton and CIU both finished 0-1-1. … Newton was missing five varsity players on Saturday. Troy Ramsey is currently in concussion protocol after getting hit in the face with a ball during Thursday’s match with Marshalltown. Christian Buchli, Asher Rhoads and Chris Deanda continue to sit out with injuries and Darwin Carcamo was out with an illness. … Newton’s only other tie in program history came against Ames in 1996.