The details were lacking for Marshalltown football on Friday night.
The Bobcats clung to a narrow halftime lead before Cedar Rapids Jefferson used a second-half surge in a 28-7 victory over MHS at Leonard Cole Field in Marshalltown.
Kyle Smith roped in a 35-yard touchdown catch-and-run on a pass from Jacob Hayes with 2:43 left in the first quarter for the Bobcats’ only points of the night. MHS (0-2) is on the road to Davenport North next Friday.
“We didn’t take the right steps on too many plays,” MHS head coach Adam Goodvin said. “We’ve talked all week about how important those details are. Last week it was the kickoff returns and not squeezing in on the football. … This week, we had a punt blocked, we’re not taking the right steps offensively, and allowing other bad things to happen.”
Marshalltown’s scoring drive came after a defensive three-and-out to start the game. The Bobcats took the ball on a seven-minute, 12-play touchdown drive, but the J-Hawks answered Smith’s score with a quick 80-yard drive ending in a 10-yard pass from Vernon Benda to Jermaine Robinson. A botched hold on the J-Hawks’ point-after attempt kept Marshalltown ahead, 7-6.
The Bobcats again bled the clock in the second quarter, but fumbled the ball away at the end of an eight-minute, 14-play drive.
Marshalltown’s defense held with a Kyle Smith interception three plays later, and after a three-and-out for the MHS offense the Bobcat defense held the J-Hawks out of the end zone once more, and Jefferson couldn’t get a hold down on a 43-yard field goal attempt as time expired in the half with Marshalltown leading 7-6.
“I was feeling great,” Goodvin said. “But there were opportunities out there for us to execute and get some more points on the board, as well as in that second half. We have to execute when those opportunities arise.”
Marshalltown’s second-half offensive drives were polar opposite to the clock-chewing drives of the first-half, and the end results of those drives were devastating to the Bobcats’ chances at victory; the first two MHS second-half drives ended in punts — the second one blocked — followed by an interception and two drives resulting in turnovers on downs, including a final drive where Sam Greazel broke off a 62 yard run to the Jefferson 5-yard line, only for the J-Hawks to stand tall at the 1-yard line and run out the clock.
In addition to Smith’s touchdown pass, the Bobcats had 5 plays go for 14 or more yards on Friday, but also had several plays that resulted in chunks of negative yardage, in addition to several pre-snap penalties.
“Consistency is what it’s all about,” Goodvin said. “We saw some things tonight where it was like, ‘Why did he do that?’ … stuff we haven’t seen in practice, or didn’t see last week. It was just bizarre. It’s fixable, and we’re telling the guys that, but we’re going to have to learn from it at some point so that we can actually fix it and execute things.”
Davenport North held off Davenport Assumption on Friday, 28-19, to improve to 2-0. The Wildcats defeated Marshalltown last season, 35-21.
“I have all the confidence in the world in our guys that we’re going to win football games,” Goodvin said. “But it’s tough to win a football game in our league, and we can’t be inconsistent. We’ve got to stack good days on top of each other. Show up on Monday and not feel sorry for ourselves, make sure we get better. Reset, do it again on Tuesday. Again on Wednesday, all to give us a chance to win on Friday nights. It’s going to be a battle every single Friday night.”
