Pella Christian suffers first loss to undefeated Newton

PELLA — A couple of undefeated teams on the early season clashed on Eagle Lane on Tuesday evening as Pella Christian played host to Newton. The Cardinals struck twice in the first half and held PC scoreless on the night in a 2-0 win.

It was another cool and breezy night on the pitch with a stiff wind coming from the north. Newton had the wind at their back in the first half and they would take advantage of it.

The Cardinals broke through in the 13th minute as a through ball from Nate Lampe set up a well-placed shot by Conner McPartlin that beat a diving PC goalkeeper Keagan Fopma to make it 1-0 Newton.

The Cardinals kept the pressure on with PC fighting the wind while Newton’s forwards could chase down long through balls with the wind at their backs. Newton had consecutive corner kicks a couple of minutes later with a second attempt being sent into the box. A frenzy of kicking followed as PC tried to clear unsuccessfully and Newton’s Cody Klein eventually fired it into the back of the net to push the Cardinal lead to 2-0.

With time ticking down at the end of the first half, Fopma made a big save on a hard shot that went off his hands and off the crossbar to keep the deficit at 2-0 as the teams went into the half.

PC got the wind for the second half but still struggled to get their offense going against Newton’s solid back line and structure. Fopma made a couple more good stops to keep things within reach but the Eagles would run out of time and would suffer their first loss of the season while Newton moved to 5-0 to start their 2024 campaign.

Fopma finished the night with 11 saves.

Pella Christian (1-1) will look to bounce back on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. when they host Clarke (0-1).