The Newton Cardinal football team suffered their third loss of the season 30-7 last night at Gilbert. The Cardinal defense could not stop the Tigers ground game and Class 4A’s leading rusher Senior Will Hawthorne. Unofficially, Hawthorne carried the ball 49 times for 260 yards. As a team, Gilbert ran the ball 65 times for 370 yards and made 22 first downs.  On the way to a 27-7 halftime lead, Gilbert possessed the ball for 17 minutes and 52 seconds with scoring drives of seven plays 82 yards, eleven plays 64 yards, 15 plays 84 yards, and eight plays 46 yards. The Tigers added a 24-yard field goal midway through the 4th quarter, which was the game’s only second half points. Newton’s only touchdown came on their first possession. Sophomore Isaiah Hansen capped a seven play 78 yard drive with a five-yard touchdown run. Unofficially, the Cardinals had 12 first downs and 234 yards of total offense. Quarterback Caden Klein ran the ball nine times for 43 yards and was 8 of 20 passing for 147 yards and one interception. Junior Finn Martin caught six passes for 120 yards. Newton also lost a fumble. Gilbert possessed the ball for 34 minutes and 57 seconds while the Cardinal offense only had the football for 13 minutes and 3 seconds. Newton Coach Andy Swedenhjelm says Gilbert was ready to play and dominated the contest..

“They out efforted us. Everything we try to build our program on, they did better. Hats off to them. That’s an area of focus we have to get better at.”

The Cardinals are now 5-3 overall and will host 0-7 Des Moines Hoover next Friday night, Pregame on kniakrls.com KRLS3 begins at 6:30 p.m. with the kickoff at 7 p.m.