The Newton Cardinal football team travels to Alleman tonight for a Top Ten battle with North Polk in a game that can be heard live on kniakrls.com KRLS3. 

Both teams are 1-0 and in the Top Ten of most class 4A polls. North Polk, the defending class 4A State Champion, won at Lewis Central 27-24 last week. The Comets’ quarterback, James Armstrong, was 16 of 23 passing for 279 yards and two touchdowns, and threw to eight different receivers. North Polk also ran for 121 yards. Newton head coach Andy Swedenhjelm says despite losing a number of key contributors from last season, North Polk still has a lot of good athletes.

“They have a nice winning culture and their coach does a really great job. Obviously they won a state title last year. So they have kids that know how to win big games.They are replacing a lot of those guys, but they have good athletics and good kids.”

Newton is coming off a come-from-behind 49-42 home win against Carlisle, scoring the game-winning touchdown with 13 seconds left in the game. Caden Klein threw five touchdown passes and set a new school record for passing yards in a game, with 399 yards. Wide receiver Finn Martin caught three touchdown passes and his 213 receiving yards also set a new single game record. Isaiah Hansen was the Cardinals’ leading rusher with a touchdown and 140 yards on 17 carries. Nick Milburn led Newton’s defense with 18.5 tackles, 17 of them solo. 

Kick-off for tonight’s game is 7:00 p.m. with pregame coverage on KRLS3 beginning at 6:30 p.m.