No. 4 DCG too much for Newton boys in substate final

May 22—GRIMES — Newton head boys soccer coach Zach Jensen thought his squad was ready for its Class 3A Substate 5 championship match on Wednesday.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, fourth-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes bombarded its visitors early and a fast start propelled the Mustangs back to the state tournament following a 7-0 victory.

"It did seem like we were here and ready to play," Jensen said. "We were pretty locked in during the ride over and looked good in warmups. But from the first whistle, it was embarrassing. That's what I told them at halftime, and it wasn't great in the second half either."

Jesus Murillo

Dallas Center-Grimes led 5-0 at halftime. The Mustangs scored three goals in the first 10 minutes and added a fourth in the 18th minute.

Six different players scored at least one goal, Ben Jackson had one goal in each half and the Mustangs posted their eighth shutout of the season.

DCG (14-4) won its fourth straight match and are winners of six of its past seven. The Mustangs improved to 11-1 against Newton since 2014.

"We were getting outworked to every ball, we weren't aggressive and we let them fly past us and were stabbing at the ball," Jensen said. "We got beat by the better team today. They are a good team. I could see them winning the tournament next week."

DCG will be joined at the state tournament by No. 2 Des Moines Hoover, No. 5 Cedar Rapids Xavier, No. 6 Norwalk, No. 8 Marion, No. 9 Cedar Rapids Washington, Storm Lake and Indianola.

Storm Lake and Indianola are both unranked and advanced to state as the No. 3 seed in their substates. Cedar Rapids Washington defeated third-ranked ADM, 4-0, in their substate final matchup.

The Mustangs had a 43-5 advantage in shots, finished with a 28-2 surplus in shots on goal and took all nine corners in the match against Newton.

Conner McPartlin

Colin Mandernach put the hosts in front for good with a goal in the 5th minute. He took a through ball to the right side of the field and then blasted it to the opposite post past senior goalie Hunter Teague.

Teague allowed the first three goals of the match but left the game in the 16th minute due to an injury. He finished with six saves.

Jackson scored his first goal in the 6th minute and then AJ Angus scored from about 35 yards out to make it 3-0.

Junior Javin Doland replaced Teague in goal and made a career-best 15 saves in the loss.

"He made some good saves to be honest," Jensen said. "He has some work to do, but he did make some good saves."

Cyrus Khosravi and Tate McDermott added goals for DCG later in the first half. Jackson made it 6-0 in the 68th minute and Nick Kessler finalized the scoring about 5 minutes later.

"When I look at the video, I'm curious to see the possession stats," Jensen said. "They just had the ball more than we did. When we had the ball, we turned it back over. It's hard to get anything going when you can't keep the ball or lose it right away."

Nate Lampe

The 10th-ranked Cardinals finalized their record at 12-6. It was their second-highest win total since 2019.

Jensen and his coaching staff will say goodbye to 13 seniors who were part of a four-year run that included 46 wins and one trip to the state tournament and state semifinals in 2022.

The senior class included Teague, Nate Lampe, Christian Lawson, Caleb Mattes, Cody Klein, Bryen Hernandez, Conner McPartlin, Jesus Murillo, Jacob Sweeney, Landon Menninga, Austin Storm, Joel Lewis and Heber Velasquez.

"This group of seniors have been staples in our lineups for several years," Jensen said. "Some of them have been starting since their freshman year. We've had them for four years. Next year is going to look a lot different for the first time in a long time. I love those guys and I'm proud of them. I appreciate everything they've done. They are great people off the field, too, which is what I'm most proud of."

Notes: There were three yellow cards handed out in the second half. Mattes (60′) and Velasquez (64′) were flagged for Newton, while Khosravi (68′) received one for the Mustangs. A Mattes foul in the first half did create some tension and some pushing and shoving but no cards were issued. ... Klein did not play in his final prep match due to injury. Jensen said he was given the option and probably would have played if "we absolutely needed him." ... Jensen also sounded off on the Iowa High School Athletic Association for the way it sets up and executes high school soccer. "Our association is garbage. There was a substate first-round match last Tuesday, then we had a full week off before the semifinals and then played the final two days later," Jensen said. "I don't understand that. I think our association needs to make some changes. It's a bunch of old guys who don't know anything about soccer. The sport of soccer is garbage in our state when it comes to the association. Something needs to change, and I will put my name on it. I don't think they care enough."

Landon Bozarth