What the Bobcats did on Monday in one game was almost more impressive than Saturday’s showing, however, as the MHS boys stomped Class 2A No. 10 Newton for a 5-1 victory in their home opener, the first win in Marshalltown for the Bobcats since April 25, 2017.

The final score doesn’t even do the game justice. The Cardinals’ lone goal came off a hurried corner kick in the final 10 seconds, with the score coming just two seconds before the horn sounded to ruin a third-straight shutout for MHS.

Marshalltown outshot Newton 47-5, including a 26-5 mark in shots on goal, and if it weren’t for 21 saves by Cardinal goalkeeper Caleb Lawson the game would have been over after halftime due to the 10-score rule.

While most of the play on Monday night happened on the Newton third of the pitch, Bobcat head boys soccer coach Scott Johannes said it was the defense that truly led to the utter domination by his squad.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - Marshalltown senior Brandon Ordaz Sanchez, right, gets past Newton goalkeeper Caleb Lawson, left, in the box during the first half of the Bobcats’ 5-1 win over the Cardinals at Leonard Cole Field on Monday.

“It starts right away with the defense and just what we can do with the trust in that back line that sets up some unbelievable passes and runs by switching back and forth,” he said. “The defense just was great.”

It didn’t take long for Marshalltown (3-1) to start putting the pressure on Newton (5-2). After a few close calls in the opening seconds of the game, MHS junior midfielder Rene Hernandez got the scoring going with a touch off a corner kick that found the back of the net in the second minute.

Had Hernandez not been there for the goal, teammate Ronaldo Ordaz also had a great look at it, which Hernandez said is just all part of the plan.

“We are always looking to make a great start, score in the first 10 minutes or so,” Hernandez said. “I guess that’s the best way we can start and luckily it’s how we started today.”

The Bobcats would continue to pelt Newton with shots but Lawson held strong, that was until Jose Torres took the cap off again in the 23rd minute with a rocket of a shot. Torres would add another goal in the 37th minute, his fifth goal of the young season, then Ordaz got a score in off of a long run that got past Lawson with 16 seconds before the halftime buzzer to make it 4-0 Marshalltown at the break.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - Marshalltown junior Ronaldo Ordaz, left, fights for the ball with Newton’s Luke Maharry during the first half of the Bobcats’ 5-1 win over the Cardinals on Monday at Leonard Cole Field.

After halftime Torres continued to get great looks but Lawson turned him back again and again, until eventually it was a Torres assist to Brandon Ordaz Sanchez in the 48th minute that would make it a 5-0 advantage for the home team. Torres finished with a team-high two goals, nine shots on goal and 11 total shots, while Ordaz Sanches, Hernandez, Ordaz and Samuel Estrada all had five shots.

After scoring the opening goal, Hernandez took more of a facilitating role in the midfield, bringing the ball up from the defense and weaving through Cardinals until he could find the right teammate to set up. He said having so many options to go to for scoring makes his job easy.

“It’s very nice to have those people who support you that you know you are able to trust,” he said. “We have a great team.”

The midfield presence of Hernandez, Ordaz, Estrada and Pablo Cuevas Montes was a big reason why the Bobcats won on Monday, and Johannes said that all came off of not having practice between Saturday’s games and Monday’s.

“Those guys definitely look to not only push the ball but move it side to side,” he said. “That was just those guys trusting what we say and really learning from our past games.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

When Newton possessed the ball, not only did Marshalltown stifle anything the Cardinals did offensively, it was a nearly seamless transition between playing defense to starting a run and a scoring chance on the other side. Johannes said part of why the Bobcats are so good at turning any small mistakes defenders make into advantages on the other end is because of the attention to detail they put in during practice.

“We have pushed, from the very beginning day, a whole lot of footwork and a whole lot of ballwork,” Johannes said. “That’s what we do, that’s our warmup, that’s our day-in and day-out routine, a lot of touches on the ball for each player and then we use it. They are getting comfortable with it, playing with their head up and looking two or three passes downfield. The ball can move quick and we want it to, not too many touches for one kid because passing is the quickest way down the field.”

This was both the first home win of Johannes’ tenure as head coach and the first home win for the team in two years. Johannes said that wasn’t necessarily something he was thinking about before or even after the game, but he’s happy to get both of those boxes checked off.

“You never want to lose at home. I was thinking, ‘let’s win tonight, let’s get the first win,’ because that sets the tone for what we’ve got for the rest of the week. We are just going to take it one game at a time, so now we will focus on tomorrow night.

The best part about the way the team won, Johannes said, was that they were able to get some other guys in and rest some starters. With two more games on the schedule over the next three days, starting with another home meeting tonight against Des Moines Roosevelt, Johannes said he will take whatever rest he can get for his team.

“In a week like this where we’ve got so many games, we are back out here tomorrow night against a good Roosevelt team, being able to rest our starters and keep them healthy is huge,” he said. “We are planning to go deep, we need those legs later, so when they play quality minutes up front it enables us to get some other guys in.”

After three straight wins against three ranked opponents, even though they might be tired Hernandez said he and the rest of the team are ready to get back out on the pitch and keep the momentum going.

“We are all starting to come together, things we work on in practice we are starting to work into the games and we are all putting in the effort too,” Hernandez said. “We need to keep each other up and keep trusting in each other. It’s all just going to come together.”

Marshalltown looks for its fourth-straight win when it hosts Des Moines Roosevelt tonight, starting at 7:30 p.m. at Leonard Cole Field.

Marshalltown 5, Newton 1

At Marshalltown

First Half

MHS — Rene Hernandez (Ronaldo Ordaz), 1:40.

MHS — Jose Torres, 22:06.

MHS — Torres (Brandon Ordaz Sanchez), 36:45.

MHS — Ronaldo Ordaz, 39:44.

Second Half

MHS — Brandon Ordaz Sanchez (Torres), 47:48.

N — Joshua Meyer (79:58).

Goalkeepers — N: Caleb Lawson (26 shots on goal-21 saves); MHS: Jesus Munoz (3-3), Ernesto Tellez (2-1).

Shots — N 6, MHS 47.

Shots on Goal — N 5, MHS 26.

Corner Kicks — N 2, MHS 7.

Yellow Cards — Nathan Jennings, N, 48:35.

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