AMES — Untimely penalties and big plays in the passing game by host Ames left the Marshalltown High School football on the short end of a 33-17 outcome in Friday’s Week 1 contest.

Ames senior quarterback Dallas Sauser completed 20-of-34 passes for 355 yards and four touchdowns, three of them going to Jalen Lueth. Lueth caught nine passes for 240 yards, including a 38-yard scoring strike that gave Ames the lead for good in the third quarter.

The Little Cyclones scored the game’s final 20 points, overtaking the Bobcats on Lueth’s last of three touchdown grabs.

Sauser connected with running back Jamison Poe for a pair of fourth-quarter scores to stretch the final deficit in Ames’ favor.

“He’s a smart kid and he knows where to go with the football and he’s got a solid weapon out there,” MHS head coach Adam Goodvin said of Sauser and Lueth. “We were trying to keep everything in front of us and obviously we struggled with that. We were trying to get guys in position to make plays, but going up against solid talent like that, it’s not always easy.”

Marshalltown, which trailed 13-10 at the half, took its last lead on a 45-yard touchdown pass from Dalen Huston to Nile Christensen early in the third quarter.

Huston’s 9-yard touchdown run and an extra-point kick by Johan Gomez gave the Bobcats a 7-6 lead midway through the first quarter, but Sauser and Lueth hooked up for their second touchdown just moments later. Lueth caught TD passes of 17 and 84 yards in the first period as Ames led 13-7.

Gomez kicked a 35-yard field goal for Marshalltown just before the end of the first half to make it a three-point game, but the Bobcats couldn’t sustain their momentum throughout the second half.

“We were in a good spot, we felt very comfortable,” Goodvin said of halftime. “We knew we were getting the ball back and we had confidence in our gameplan.”

Huston finished 19-for-23 passing for 195 yards with one interception. Nick Rebik and Huston both rushed for 42 yards to lead MHS. Christensen was the leading receiver with four grabs for 66 yards and a touchdown.

Ames piled up 464 yards of total offense to Marshalltown’s 277.

The Bobcats play their first home game next Friday night against Waterloo East. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Leonard Cole Field.

“One-hundred percent, we can’t have that,” Goodvin said of his team’s penalties. “We can’t have any of that if you want to be successful and that’s what I told the kids: it was all mental, it wasn’t physical.

“We’ve got some tough kids, I know that. Our kids are going to be hungry, and we’re going to be ready there’s no doubt in my mind.”