T-R GRAPHIC

The Marshalltown football team has been one win away from its first winning record since 2012 for the last two weeks, but the Bobcats have failed to secure that elusive fifth win.

MHS will have one last chance to win its fifth game on Friday night when it hosts long-time rival Fort Dodge for the season finale at Leonard Cole Field.

After the worst loss of the season last week, a 56-7 beating by Southeast Polk in Class 4A District 2 play, Marshalltown head football coach Adam Goodvin said his guys know this is the last chance to finish the year on a positive note.

“I laid it out in front of them, we can either sit back and feel sorry for ourselves or we can go back out there and get to work,” Goodvin said. “Our mindset all year has been to get back to work no matter what the result was the week previously, whether it’s a win or a loss, and this week kind of seemed the same thing. Hopefully we can get some things cleaned up and be ready to go Friday.”

For the Bobcats (4-4, 1-3) to get right back on their home field, they will face one of the best offenses in Iowa in the Dodgers (6-2, 3-1).

Fort Dodge is the top passing offense in the entire state at 2,562 yards through the air, led by quarterback Jake Miller’s state-leading 2,484 passing yards. Miller also has a strong stable of receivers to use, with Tysen Kershaw leading that group with 982 receiving yards and nine touchdowns, and a good running back in Dayson Clayton, who has 906 rushing yards and 11 scores.

“It’s no secret, their offense revolves around the Miller kid, a senior quarterback who has done a great job for them the last couple of years,” Goodvin said. “He’s got a lot of talent at the receiver position and they do an outstanding job of putting those guys into position and the Miller kid has great timing with them. They have a good system going and it will be a challenge for us to slow them down.”

Last season in a less-prolific year, Miller went 13-for-16 with 320 yards and four touchdown passes in the Dodgers’ 49-12 win over the Bobcats.

While Fort Dodge is better in 2018, so is Marshalltown, and Goodvin said his defensive backs specifically have come a long way since the beginning of the year.

“They are getting better every single week, I think a point of emphasis this week is our defensive line and linebackers need to get a lot of pressure on Miller and put him in positions to make it difficult to throw the ball accurately,” he said.

Since this is unlike any offense MHS has faced so far, Goodvin said the defense might have a few new wrinkles to show the Dodgers.

“[Defensive coordinator Mike Eggleston] has a couple of plans that we’ve gone over, a few changes this week, and we will see how it plays out,” Goodvin said.

The Dodger defense is a little more familiar, as they run an odd 3-4 front that the Bobcats have witnessed a few times this year.

Against Mason City, also a three-man front, Giorgio DiIorio and Jonathan Hernandez each ran for over 100 yards, while Derrick Garth finished with 75 yards.

“It’s week nine of the season and we have gone up against this front a few times, I think we need to come out fast, come out strong and execute,” Goodvin said. “We have had a decent week of practice and our kids, especially our seniors, are ready to get out Friday night at home against Fort Dodge, that’s all you need to say.”

There’s no question that this is a big game for the Bobcats, even without the winning record hanging in the balance. Marshalltown owns a 26-23-1 record all-time against the Dodgers, and Goodvin said there is a lot of familiarity between the two squads despite being 100 miles apart.

“These kids play each other in every single sport they compete in,” he said. “They’ve played each other in every single year since they were in middle school, so I am sure they know each other well. It will be a fun matchup.”

It’s also one last chance for the Bobcats to walk off Leonard Cole Field with a victory, and a chance to erase the bad memories from a 20-15 loss to Des Moines Roosevelt last time Marshalltown was at home.

“It’s huge, definitely for our seniors,” Goodvin said. “A week nine football game at home, it’s always nice to play five home games in a season. Next year we won’t be as fortunate but it’s definitely nice to play at home again one last time under the lights in front of our home crowd.”

The Bobcats welcome Fort Dodge to Leonard Cole Field for their final game of the season on Friday, starting at 7 p.m.