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After a promising first half that saw the Dutch extend their lead just before halftime, it appeared Pella was heading toward its first footballl win of 2022. But Newton dominated the final 24 minutes, scoring three times to ultimately win 21-14, as heard live on the KRLS2 stream Friday during homecoming celebrations in the Tulip City.

Pella forced two Newton turnovers in the first half, including after the Cardinals got the ball down to the Dutch one-yard line. After a 70 yard Luke Hardman punt, Pella took a short field in 2nd quarter and capped it off with five yard Kenson Fuller homecoming royalty touchdown. After giving up a long Cardinals drive near the end of the half, the Dutch rushing attack marched into the redzone, and Hardman snuck in the second Dutch score with 13 seconds until the break.

Newton’s Cody Klein took the game over with an 80 yard run in the 3rd quarter after the Dutch offense couldn’t find its footing to start out of the break. From there, the Cardinals took advantage of Pella turnovers to eventually hit a go-ahead 21 yard field goal and to ice the contest with another Klein score in the 4th — he finished with 233 yards on the ground.

Hardman and Fuller combined for over 170 yards rushing, but the Dutch only completed four passes in the game.

Pella falls to 0-5 overall and next travel to #1 in 4A Xavier.