Second-ranked DCG too much for Newton girls
May 11—Newton junior Natalee Freese has played every single varsity minute at goalie this spring.
She also plays a ton of minutes at forward in junior varsity matches.
On Monday, Freese spent 100 minutes between the pipes and played 60 minutes in the JV contest.
Facing Class 2A No. 2 Dallas Center-Grimes the following night was already going to be a challenge. Playing the Mustangs after a marathon match the night before made things even harder.
"We definitely were tired when we showed up today," Freese said. "We were exhausted after last night's game. I thought we played well though. I am definitely not sad or mad about this game even though we lost. We played pretty well."
The Cardinals did play well against their second-ranked conference rival. DCG led 2-0 at halftime and both goals came on penalty kicks.
The Mustangs scored three penalty kicks in the win and eventually pulled away from the Cardinals during a 7-0 road victory in Little Hawkeye Conference play on Tuesday.
"We definitely prepared to be on defense a lot tonight," Newton girls' co-head coach Victoria Jordan said. "We knew it would be a tough game. The girls did everything we asked them to do. They stopped about every ball they could. I think they were tired from last night, too."
Dallas Center-Grimes got on the board in the 8th minute when Kylie Kniet made a penalty kick against Freese. Another PK goal in the 14th minute by the Mustangs made it 2-0 at halftime.
"To know they only got two goals on us in the first half off PKs was a good feeling," Freese said. "It was the only way they could score for a while."
Newton was limited to two shots total in 80 minutes. DCG peppered Freese with 60 shots and 34 shots on goal. She finished with a career-high 27 saves. The Cardinal junior now has 167 saves for the season, which ranks tied for fifth in Class 2A.
The Cardinals (6-8-1 overall, 2-4-1 in the conference) were shut out for the eighth time this season. It was their third straight loss and Newton fell to 1-8 against DCG since 2014.
Olivia Cyr scored two goals in the win and Kniet added one goal and one assist.
The Mustangs (11-3, 6-0) scored a third PK goal a little more than 10 minutes into the second half.
The final four DCG goals came in the last 24 minutes. Two of those came off deflections. Freese made several diving saves but couldn't always corral the ball.
"That's very frustrating," Freese said about allowing goals off deflections. "My gloves are falling apart so sometimes the ball deflects off them. I was hoping my defense could get there. We were close."
Centerville 1, Newton 0, shootout
CENTERVILLE — The Cardinals held a significant advantage in shots during their non-conference game against Centerville on Monday.
But a 1-3 mark in penalty kicks during a shootout led to another narrow loss for the Newton girls.
Briana Shannon made a penalty kick in the shootout, but Centervile (5-6) connected on three of its four attempts.
Neither team scored in the 100 minutes of regulation and two overtime periods.
