NEWTON — East Surry ran up against a big, fast, athletic Newton-Conover team and left with a 49-6 defeat Friday night.

That defensive line was both large and athletic, noted Coach David Diamont. The home team controlled the line of scrimmage all night.

The Cardinals had several drives that started off nice, but stalled out, he said.

“They were the best team we’ve played against,” he said. The Cards lost to Starmount 14-7 in week two, but Diamont said this squad was better than the Rams.

“We helped them out by making some mistakes,” he admitted. Some of those were undisciplined errors that the Cards hadn’t been making in their first three games like being offsides, not lining up in the right spot or blowing assignments.

“We didn’t respond well to a very good football team,” he said.

The Cards got their lone score on the opening kickoff in the second half.

“We went down and hit them in the mouth and made them cough the ball up,” he said. Junior defensive back Chase Brewster scooped up the ball and ran it in for a touchdown.

Diamont noted that Newton left its starters in on defense the whole game.

“We played everybody but the cheerleaders in the fourth quarter,” he said.

After four nonconference games, Diamont is looking forward to starting the Northwest Conference schedule.

“We don’t know any of these people,” he said of the four early opponents.

He is optimistic about his team’s chances in the Northwest after going 2-2 against four tough teams.

“We’ve got a short memory, so we’ll be fine,” he said.

The Cards travel to Surry Central on Friday.