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Valley vaults past Bobcats, 69-0

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • West Des Moines Valley running back Creighton Mitchell, top, jumps over Marshalltown sophomore Justice Richardson (4) on his way to scoring at the end of the first quarter in the Tigers’ 69-0 win over the Bobcats on Friday.

It was clear early on in Friday’s Class 4A District 4 game between Marshalltown and West Des Moines Valley at Leonard Cole Field that the Tigers and Bobcats were on two completely different levels as teams.

Second-ranked Valley scored 28 points in the first quarter on their way to a 69-0 shut out of Marshalltown in the final game of the regular season.

MHS head coach Adam Goodvin, who completed his first season at the helm with the loss, said when you boil down everything from Friday night, his team was just outplayed on the field.

“It was pretty simple, we were in the right spots at a lot of times but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the score,” he said. “They made a lot of plays with their athletic ability and took advantage of that and they went from there and just kept rolling.”

The Bobcats end their season with a 1-8 record, including an 0-5 record against divisional opponents. Nothing went right for Marshalltown in the final contest, as they combined for only 12 total yards of offense in the game.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown senior Noah DeVenney (8) forces a fumble from West Des Moines Valley receiver Jalen Long (10) while Bobcats defensive back Justice Richardson (4) helps corral the slipery wide out during the Tigers’ 69-0 defeat of MHS on Friday night.

The Tigers (8-1, 5-0) had eight rushing touchdowns alone in the win, with Jevon Mason leading in that category with three scores, all in the first half.

Goodvin said there was just never a moment when the Bobcats could get any momentum going in their final game.

“We couldnt get in a groove and when you can’t find the groove it makes things hard for,” he said. “You feel like you’re in neutral all game and it’s tough, the way you get out of that groove is a guy steps up and makes a play and you go from there, but we just didn’t have that.”

MHS senior quarterback Sam Irwin, who had at least 100 yards passing in every game this season prior to Friday night, finished 5-for-23 passing with 25 yards and two interceptions in his final game in a Bobcat uniform.

Though the last game of the year didn’t quite go as this large senior class wanted it to, Goodvin said he is grateful to have coached this group in his first season.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“I am really proud of all 30 seniors, I told them I couldn’t have asked for a better group of guys. On and off the field they are a great group of kids and they know that,” he said.

Any coach needs a strong group of leaders to help implement his plan when he takes over, and Goodvin said all of his 30 seniors this season were apart of building what he will build off of moving forward.

“As far as laying that foundation, there were so many of them that had been around for the four years and they did a great job of showing those younger guys that this wasn’t sophomore or freshman football any more, this is varsity football and you have to pick your game up,” he said.

When it comes to the plan for the remaining Bobcats, Goodvin said the formula isn’t a difficult one, his kids have to get better in almost every way.

“The overall plan is to get the guys faster and stronger and better at the game of football,” Goodvin said. “I will sit down with the rest of the coaching staff and talk about what we can do differently.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

After a season that featured only one win, it might be easy for players to feel like they made no growth throughout the year or that what growth they made didn’t amount to anything. Goodvin said that kind of thinking isn’t for this team moving forward, and he for one is ready to make changes and go back to work figuring out how to get better on the gridiron in 2018.

“You have to keep your head down and keep pushing, never be satisfied with anything,” Goodvin said. “That’s kind of how I am going to approach things from here on out, keep my head down and keep working. Go back to work and see what we can do to try and win more ball games, it’s pretty simple.”

West Des Moines Valley 69, Marshalltown 0

At Marshalltown

Valley 28 28 6 7 — 0

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Marshalltown 0 0 0 0 — 0

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

VAL — Jevon Mason 45 run (Tinsley Wright kick), 11:02.

VAL — Mason 6 run (Wright kick), 8:13.

VAL — Tariq Brown 5 pass from Beau Lombardi (Wright kick), 4:19.

VAL — Creighton Mitchell 5 run (Wright kick), :14.

Second Quarter

VAL — Mason 3 run (Wright kick), 10:33.

VAL — Tre Fugate 47 run (Wright kick), 8:05.

VAL — Mitchell 27 run (Wright kick), 2:57.

VAL — Fugate 1 run (Wright kick), :00.

Third Quarter

VAL — Mac McLean 3 pass from Casey Stalzer (kick failed), 3:38.

Fourth Quarter

VAL — Jalen Crowell 2 run (Connor Russo kick), 8:07.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — VAL: Fugate 7-83, Mason 5-64, Mitchell 7-42, Crowell 5-39, Dante Manuel 12-38, Stalzer 1-(minus-1); MHS: Carson Beals 2-19, Alex Rockingham 1-0, Jordan Fox 1-(minus-2), Jacob Smith 2-(minus-4), Giorgio Diiorio 10-(minus-10), Sam Irwin 1-(minus-18).

PASSING — VAL: Lombardi 14-19-234-0, Stalzer 2-2-0-0; MHS: Irwin 5-23-25-2, Stalzer 0-3-0-0.

RECEIVING — VAL: Tariq Brown 7-93, Luke Matney 3-84, Jalen Long 2-22, Fugate 1-21, Mitchell 1-14, McLean 1-3; MHS: Dylan Eygabroad 3-22, Jonathan Hernandez 1-3, Rockingham 1-0.

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