By Sam Parsons
A beautiful Friday night on the eve of October turned out to be a not-so-beautiful night of football for the Oskaloosa Indians as they faced a difficult test on the road against the 7th ranked Newton Cardinals.
The Cardinals got the ball to start the game and immediately went to work offensively. In their first drive, it took them only 4 plays to reach the end zone, punctuated by a 43 yard touchdown run by star running back Cody Klein to make it 7-0 just over a minute into the game.
The Indian offense responded with a pair of chunk plays on marvelous catches by senior wideout Waylon Bolibaugh, who delivered a standout performance. His catches of 32 and 42 yards put Osky on the doorstep of Newton’s end zone, but penalties held them out, so they settled for a 33 yard field goal off the foot of freshman Linus Morrison to make the score 7-3.
The explosive plays kept coming for the Newton offense, however. 7 plays into their next drive, senior quarterback Brody Bauer took a read option keeper to the left side of the field and there was nobody there to meet him, and he went 35 yards to the house to extend the Cardinal lead to 14-3, which is where the score remained entering the 2nd quarter.
The two teams traded punts, and then Oskaloosa went 3-and-out, and Newton got back to their explosive ways on offense. Early in the 2nd quarter, Bauer heaved a deep ball over the middle to sophomore wideout Christian Ergenbright, who made a fantastic finger-tip catch in stride and took it the rest of the way for a 59 yard score to make it 21-3. Another Osky punt led to another long touchdown for the Cardinals; this time, a 39 yard catch-and-run by sophomore Nate Lampe delivered by Bauer to bring the score to 28-3. With just over 3 minutes remaining in the half, the game was in dire straits for the Indians.
It didn’t get better from there. On the first play of the next drive for the Osky offense, junior QB Trevor Willett was picked off on a play that appeared to have possibly been broken from the start. Carson Satterfield was the beneficiary of the fluttering throw to the flat and there was consequently nothing but daylight in front of him as he housed it to extend the Cardinal lead to 35-3.
Osky was able to generate some movement offensively on what looked to be their final drive of the half, bringing it all the way to the Cardinal 36 with under a minute to go, but it ended with another Willett interception, this time courtesy of Nate Lampe, who made a brilliant play 1-on-1 with Maddux Ashman at the Cardinal 5 yard line. The most brutal dagger of them all came on the next play as Newton took over with 35 seconds remaining in the half and presumably no ambitions to score, but Cody Klein took the next carry and found a lot of green space in the middle of the field; enough to blow by the Indian defense and take it all the way for a 95 yard rushing touchdown right before the end of the half. The score was 42-3 at halftime.
With a running clock in the second half, both teams got to play some of their younger reserve players, and Oskaloosa saw a standout performance from backup quarterback Parker Lewis late in the game, who found Waylon Bolibaugh for a 30 yard catch-and-run for the lone Indian touchdown. It, of course, was far too little too late, however. The final score was 56-10 in favor of the Cardinals.
Oskaloosa (1-5) will play their final home game of the season next week against their biggest rival, the Pella Dutch. Newton (6-0) will look to remain perfect as they host Cedar Rapids Washington next week.
Oskaloosa Passing
Trevor Willett: 12/21, 145 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT; 0 sacks, 0 fumbles
Parker Lewis: 5/9, 69 yards, TD, INT; 1 sack, 2 yards lost, 0 fumbles
Newton Passing
Brody Bauer: 7/10, 125 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT; 0 sacks, 0 fumbles
Oskaloosa Rushing
Dom Piersel: 9 carries, 51 yards
Tatum Westercamp: 11 carries, 35 yards, 1 fumble
Newton Rushing
Cody Klein: 10 carries, 174 yards, 2 TD
Reilly Trease: 3 carries, 74 yards, TD
Brody Bauer: 3 carries, 64 yards, TD
Clayton Wickliffe: 6 carries, 23 yards, TD
Oskaloosa Receiving
Waylon Bolibaugh: 9 rec, 159 yards, TD
Wyatt Grubb: 6 rec, 48 yards
Maddux Ashman: 2 rec, 13 yards
Newton Receiving
Christian Ergenbright: 2 rec, 72 yards, TD
Nate Lampe: 1 rec, 39 yards, TD
Curtis Payne: 1 rec, 9 yards
Jordan Killmer: 1 rec, 6 yards
Caleb Mattes: 1 rec, 3 yards
Cody Klein: 1 rec, -4 yards
