Warrior of an effort

Bobcats take No. 10 Waukee to OT before falling

by ROSS THEDE
The first shot on goal in overtime was the only one to find the goal, too.

Waukee freshman forward Cameron Duckworth found the back of the net five minutes into the first extra period, pushing the 10th-ranked Warriors past Marshalltown 1-0 Thursday night at Leonard Cole Field.

A pass from Eric Bean found Duckworth with space to work with between himself and MHS freshman goalkeeper Mario Gomez, who nearly got a hand on what turned out to be the game-winning goal. Duckworth also scored a goal in the Warriors’ 2-0 upset win over No. 2 Ankeny on Tuesday night.

It was a bittersweet defeat for a Bobcat team that played its best soccer of the season, only to come up one goal shy of scoring an upset victory of its own.

“They finally played up to the level I knew they could play at, and then to lose it in overtime is tough,” MHS head coach Craig Marshall said after his team’s first overtime match.

Marshalltown (2-6, 1-2) dropped to 0-3 against ranked teams this season, having already fallen 7-2 to Dowling Catholic and 6-1 to Ankeny.

Waukee, Marshall said, belongs in the same conversations as those other highly ranked teams.

“Other than probably Dowling, Waukee is as good or better as most everybody we’ve played,” he stated.

The Bobcats will be able to draw comparisons by rounding out the regular season at home, hosting Ames tonight and top-ranked West Des Moines Valley on Monday.

“I told the guys that I would take the emotion, the anger of losing this and take it out on Ames,” Marshall said. “But it’s hard to play two nights in a row at that level. I’m anxious to see how they do (Friday) night.

“It’s an experiment in psychology. I believe they’ll give me everything they’ve got.”

Waukee (8-4) kept Gomez busy in goal in just his second varsity start. He made nine stops in regulation before Duckworth snuck one past him with 4:57 left in the first 10-minute overtime session.

“You know, the ball bounces right for somebody and then it bounces wrong for somebody else,” Marshall said.

Gomez made a dazzling one-handed save to preserve the scoreless tie with 1:05 left in the second half, that after a pair of saves made by defenders — not the goalies — kept the game at 0-0 heading into the first intermission.

Marshalltown’s Martin Godinez appeared to have the go-ahead goal in the 34th minute of the match, flipping the ball past Waukee goalkeeper Jared Kunze toward an open net. But senior defender Luke Bramble came out of nowhere, kicking the ball out of the goal area with “three ball-lengths” left to spare according to the linesman.

In the 36th minute, Bobcat defender Tyler Fogt made a similar stop on Waukee’s go-ahead attempt. A corner kick into the goal area found Bean — the tallest player on the field — and his header appeared headed to the back of the net. Fogt made a kick-save before Gomez pounced on the loose ball just in front of the goal line.

Both teams skimmed the crossbar throughout the match, making for a lot of tense moments watching the ball in flight sail just high or just wide.

With Marshalltown’s most veteran defender Michael Splittgerber sidelined with an ankle sprain after a tackle that yielded a yellow card for Duckworth in the first half, the Warriors finally snuck one into the net in overtime.

“We’ve still got a couple weeks to improve here and so far they’ve made improvements every week,” Marshall said. “They’re like sponges. It’s been fun.”

The last time Marshalltown played on back-to-back nights, they followed up a 3-2 win over Southeast Polk with a 4-0 loss at Fort Dodge to start a run of five straight CIML Iowa Conference matches to end the regular season.

“If they play at the pace of the game like we did tonight, we’ll win (Friday’s) game, I believe that,” Marshall said.

The Bobcats will also host their postseason opener May 20, facing either Linn-Mar or Mason City at 6:30 p.m. at Leonard Cole Field.