T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown junior running back Nick Rebik carries the ball into the end zone from six yards out to give the Bobcats the early lead in their eventual 68-25 victory over Cedar Rapids Jefferson on Friday night at Leonard Cole Field. Rebik scored four touchdowns in the team’s final home game of the season.

Trying to predict the outcomes of every Class 5A football game is more than Marshalltown High School football coach Adam Goodvin wants to undertake. Filling in the variables and extrapolating the data won’t help the Bobcats complete their first three-game win streak in more than two years.

At least it’s a possibility now.

The Bobcats bombarded winless Cedar Rapids Jefferson on Friday night at Leonard Cole Field, racking up a 68-25 victory on Senior Night to stack back-to-back victories going into next Friday’s regular-season finale at Des Moines North.

It marked Marshalltown’s first consecutive wins since the 2019 rendition rattled off four-straight wins to start the season, which is all the Bobcats can control at this stage of the year. Worrying about the ‘what ifs’ won’t do the Bobcats any good or increase their odds of finding a back door into the 5A state football playoffs.

Controlling the controllables is the best they can do, and on Friday night they did just that.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“I think the first thing that we wanted to focus on was obviously ourselves first, and that’s what we do every single week,” Goodvin said. “Our kids got better and they’re confident. I think our offense executed and they were confident when they were making plays and we got a lot of guys playing time. That was awesome to see. Every single one of these kids have put in so much work this whole year and they’ve all earned it.”

Marshalltown junior running back Nick Rebik scored four touchdowns by three different means and the Bobcats handed Cedar Rapids Jefferson (0-8) its 16th consecutive defeat. The J-Hawks had scored just 27 points in six games going into the contest — they forfeited to top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy — but emerged with a season-high 25 points in a game that was a contest if only briefly in the first quarter.

Jefferson’s ill-fated opening drive ended with a blocked punt, and Rebik rumbled into the end zone from six yards out on the very next play. The J-Hawks had a speedy response, however, as AJ White took the direct snap and slipped through the Marshalltown defense for a 79-yard touchdown dash. A failed extra-point kick left Jefferson behind by one, 7-6, but gave the Bobcats an instant reminder that football is still football.

Marshalltown answered accordingly, reaching paydirt three plays into its ensuing possession when sophomore quarterback Dalen Huston hit Rebik on the wheel route for a 47-yard touchdown pass, catch and run.

Gannon Williams snatched Jefferson’s first pass attempt out of the air on the next drive, and the Bobcats converted the turnover into instant offense with Malachi Holmes’ 20-yard touchdown run.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

The Bobcats didn’t break the goal line again until the midpoint of the second period, when senior fullback Dominick Garth ran all three plays of a 48-yard scoring drive and capped it with a tackle-breaking 8-yard touchdown run to make it 27-6.

Kay’Zure Lewis followed in his teammate’s footsteps with another direct snap and quarterback keeper that turned into a 63-yard touchdown scamper for the J-Hawks, but Holmes returned the ensuing kickoff 83 yards for another Bobcat score.

Huston capped the Bobcats’ next two drives with touchdown scrambles of 12 and 32 yards and Marshalltown strolled into halftime with a 47-12 advantage.

MHS made it four-straight scores by taking the opening possession of the third quarter 60 yards in just three plays, finishing it off with Rebik’s 34-yard touchdown run around end.

Marshalltown senior placekicker Richard Toe got in on the scoring late in the fourth quarter when he took a toss sweep 69 yards to the end zone. Jefferson retaliated moments later with White’s 36-yard scoring run, but Rebik housed the ensuing kickoff from 84 yards away to bring the scoreboard to its final tally.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“It’s kind of been a roller coaster year, we lost some close ones early on and those are some tough ones to swallow,” Goodvin said. “It is what it is. We’ve moved on from it and we’re going to make the most of it.

“(Making the playoffs) would have to be an outside type of thing and some teams would have to lose. I’ll have to ask our math teachers on staff to crunch some numbers and look at some scores from tonight, but we’ll see. We haven’t talked about playoffs at all — we’ve got to take care of ourselves first and whatever happens, happens. Control what we can control.”

On this night it was the pinball-like scoreboard, that featured Jefferson’s season-high scoring output and Marshalltown’s most points scored since the Bobcats beat Waterloo East 70-0 in 2016. It’s only the fifth time MHS has eclipsed 60 points in the last 20 years.

“It’s like putting together a puzzle and whether it’s a jet sweep or a trap or a blast right up the middle, it’s a good problem to have,” Goodvin said of his offensive weapons. “We’ve got to keep at it, we’ve got a big opportunity next week to end the season on a high note.”

Rebik finished with five carries for 81 yards to lead the Marshalltown rushing attack. Toe tallied four carries for 76 yards, and Huston and Garth both had four carries for 50 yards.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Huston attempted just five passes, completing three of them for 62 yards. Gannon Williams had two receptions for 15 yards, to go with one of the defense’s three takeaways.

White led Jefferson with 21 carries for 176 yards, and Lewis added 10 attempts for 103 yards. The J-Hawks were just 2-for-4 passing for 23 yards between three quarterbacks, only two of which attempted to throw.

“You could tell right away on film that they’ve got some athletes over there,” Goodvin said of Jefferson. “Obviously it’s no secret that depth is an issue, but they’ve got kids that care and all the credit to that staff for keeping those guys together and doing what they’re doing.”

The J-Hawks actually outgained the Bobcats in total offense, 339-302, but ran 15 more plays.

The Bobcats visit Des Moines North next Friday night in the regular-season finale.

Marshalltown 68, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 25

At Marshalltown

CR JEFF 6 6 0 13 — 25

MHS 20 27 7 14 — 68

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

MHS — Nick Rebik 6 run (Richard Toe kick), 9:51.

CRJ — AJ White 79 run (kick failed), 8:51.

MHS — Rebik 47 pass from Dalen Huston (Toe kick), 7:20.

MHS — Malachi Holmes 20 run (kick blocked), 2:44.

Second Quarter

MHS — Dominick Garth 8 run (Toe kick), 7:41.

CRJ — Kay’Zure Lewis 63 run (run failed), 5:24.

MHS — Holmes 83 kickoff return (Toe kick), 5:10

MHS — Huston 12 run (kick failed), 2:36.

MHS — Huston 32 run (Toe kick), 1:21.

Third Quarter

MHS — Rebik 34 run (Toe kick), 9:29.

Fourth Quarter

CRJ — Johnnie Robinson 11 run (Nathan Harms kick), 4:41.

MHS — Toe 69 run (Toe kick), 3:54.

CRJ — White 36 run (kick blocked), 1:56.

MHS — Rebik 84 kickoff return (Toe kick), 1:42.

TEAM STATISTICS

CRJ MHS

First downs 12 11

Rushes-yards 40-339 25-302

Passing yards 23 62

Comp-Att-Int 2-4-1 3-5-0

Total Offense 44-362 25-302

Fumbles-lost 8-2 0-0

Penalties-yards 5-25 6-58

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — CRJ: White 21-176, Lewis 10-103, Robinson 7-63, Jeremiah Peiffer 2-(minus 3); MHS: Rebik 5-81, Toe 4-76, Huston 4-50, Garth 4-50, Holmes 4-24, Mannie Kparyea 2-16, Jayzek Lee 2-5.

PASSING — CRJ: White 1-2-18-0, Peiffer 1-2-5-1; MHS: Huston 3-5-62-0.

RECEIVING — CRJ: Carter Bronson 1-18, Tyler Huston 1-5; MHS: Rebik 1-47, Gannon Williams 2-15.