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Bobcats try to bounce back with win over No. 3 Jaguars

T-R GRAPHIC

The Marshalltown football team suffered a close loss to rival Ames last Friday for its first loss of the season, and head coach Adam Goodvin said that didn’t sit well with his squad.

“I think they understand we were right in that football game and if a few plays go differently then it could have been a different outcome,” he said after practice Wednesday. “That was last week though and we are onto this week.”

In order to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time all year, the Bobcats (3-1) will have to get right against a highly-touted Ankeny Centennial team who ranked third in Class 4A in the most recent Associated Press Iowa high school football poll.

Goodvin said the team isn’t being reactionary about the loss to the Little Cyclones, and suffering that 21-13 defeat might have been a blessing in disguise.

“We are going to improve at what we do, there might be a few wrinkles here and there like there are every single week, but for the most part we are going to improve on our core stuff and get better at that,” he said. “We picked up on film some areas that we could improve on and needed the work in. The good thing is the kids saw that too, it didn’t take a coach to say ‘hey look what you did wrong here.’ They saw it and understand it and that makes our job easy.”

Not only are the Bobcats looking to avoid a second-straight loss, the game against the Jaguars is the first of 4A District 2 play for Marshalltown as well. Goodvin said the enormity of this game is not lost on his squad.

“We have a great opportunity this week going up against Centennial, it’s not every week you have an opportunity to play a top-3 team in the state,” he said. “There’s a heightened sense of urgency when you play the third-ranked team in the state always, and then them being in our district, it’s right there too. We are excited, it’s another Friday to play football and the kids are anxious to get back out there.”

Marshalltown and Ankeny Centennial are very similar in their approach to both sides of the ball. The Bobcats and Jaguars are fourth and fifth respectively in rushing yards in 4A, and Goodvin said they aren’t going to beat themselves.

“They are a very disciplined football team and they do things the way they do and they do it well,” Goodvin said. “They are a hard-nosed team and they like to hit and try to run the ball a lot. We have to be ready, we are going to have to play very physical.”

Avery Gates is the offensive leader for Centennial in the backfield, carrying the ball 40 times for 460 yards and seven touchdowns so far in 2018. Goodvin said Gates wouldn’t be averaging 11.5 yards per carry if it weren’t for a strong push up front.

“Their offensive line is very physical and they’ve got some fast running backs and the quarterback does an outstanding job of leading them,” he said. “We have to get to the ball and then make the tackle when we get there, that’s another key point we have focused on this week. It’s not only getting to the ball but wrapping them up and stopping them right there.”

Marshalltown has multiple options for carrying the ball in its backfield that all provide something a little different. Derrick Garth is the carries and touchdown leader at 66 rushing attempts and eight scores on the ground — tied for third in the class — while Giorgio DiIorio leads with 449 yards. Jonathan Hernandez has come along in the last few games as well, amassing 158 yards on just 12 carries to come in at 13.2 yards per carry, and Carson Beals has been strong running the ball in the fullback spot.

“The thing about our offense is you never know who is going to get the rushing yards but the one consistent thing is the offensive line doing an outstanding job,” Goodvin said. “It can be anybody on any Friday night, but I am very proud of our offensive line and our backs for reading holes and hitting them hard.”

The Jaguars bring a whole lot of quickness to a defense that has held the likes of No. 7 Dowling Catholic to just seven points last week.

“According to quikstats they don’t have a guy on the defense over 215 pounds but they are a very physical football team and they fly around,” Goodvin said. “They have a lot of fast linebackers that scrape and fly to the ball. They get there and hit hard, we have to be ready for that, we have to do our job and by physical as well.”

With the physical nature of both teams on the front lines, the game could come down to the arm of Bobcat quarterback Jacob Smith, who has thrown for over 100 yards in each of the last three games. Goodvin said if it comes to that, he trusts Smith to make good decisions in the offensive system.

“He is getting more comfortable with what we do every single week and it’s fun to watch,” Goodvin said of Smith. “He is asking more questions and learning the game, he’s an outstanding kid to work with and he is a grinder. He will go out there and push the kids to work hard, you are going to get the most out of Jacob when you are working with him.”

It will take, in Goodvin’s usual refrain, extreme effort and execution for the Bobcats to pull out the win against Ankeny Centennial when the two teams line up against each other at Northview Middle School on Friday at 7 p.m., but Goodvin said the guys are determined not to walk away defeated in back-to-back weeks.

“I always tell them to go out there and have the attitude that you expect to win, don’t go out there and hope to win,” Goodvin said. “That’s kind of the attitude they’ve shown up with the first four weeks of the year and I hope to see that on Friday night.

“They hated losing, you could see it in their eyes last Friday night, and they will be ready.”

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