While the Bobcats partied early and often on the field and in the stands, there was a period of somber silence early in what was a very needed Marshalltown football victory.

Late in the first quarter of the Bobcats’ 42-13 rout of Des Moines Lincoln, Bobcat senior tight end Jackson Bowie got his left ankle rolled up after Ace Holmes scored a touchdown to put Marshalltown up two scores. The freak play left the senior down in pain for over 15 minutes as medical personnel tended to his leg. A tunnel was formed by Marshalltown and Lincoln players as he was taken into an ambulance, a harsh reminder of the sport’s inherent dangers.

Head coach Adam Goodvin said he didn’t know for sure the full extent of the injury, but he said he was thinking of the Bobcat senior and the team was there for him.

“He’s great buddies with every single kid on this team and we’re gonna keep him in our thoughts and prayers for the time being,” Goodvin said. “It’s tough to see one of your friends go down like that, but I have to give credit to Jackson. That kid, he handled it extremely well.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown’s Tate Riang (5) breaks into the open on his way to a 71-yard touchdown run on the final play of the first half in Friday’s football game at Leonard Cole Field. Riang’s run gave the Bobcats a 35-0 lead on their way to a 42-13 victory on Homecoming.

“He’s a tough kid and he’ll get through this, there’s no doubt. He’s got a lot of support from everybody.”

After the injury, it took the Bobcats (2-4) a few plays to get their bearings back under them. But once the MHS defense stopped the Railsplitters (1-5) on a fourth down attempt, the team refocused — and a long drive was followed by Huston running in from 20 yards out to put the Bobcats up 21-0 midway through the second quarter.

Another stop led to another score with two minutes left in the half, as Huston found Treshaun Brooks for a short score. Huston was 9-for-15 through the air for 119 yards.

With the last play of the first half the result was effectively sealed by Tate Riang’s 71-yard run on a jet sweep to make it 35-0 Marshalltown. Riang was the Bobcats’ leading rusher on the night thanks in large part to this score. Huston ran for 63 yards and Nick Rebik had 32 on two carries.

Goodvin praised a slight adjustment the Bobcats made on the fly sweep play, which hadn’t seen much success to that point in the game, ahead of calling the play for Riang. Marshalltown had 365 total yards of offense.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown quarterback Dalen Huston fires a strike to Treshaun Brooks for a 7-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter of Friday’s game. MHS offensive lineman Kunian Kuany (74) helps clear the lane for Huston’s throw.

“Our playbook was wide open, we would talk about what we saw from them defensively and we didn’t think there was one thing that we couldn’t execute in one way or another,” Goodvin said. “We tell our kids to play with confidence, play fast and expect to do good things.

“We made some adjustments [to the play] on the sideline and our backs, our O-Line and our receivers all executed perfectly when we needed it.”

Defense was solid for the Bobcats on most occasions Friday night, starting with a forced turnover on the first drive of the game. A botched snap allowed Seth Smith and Brooks to get a clean look at the ball, which led to Marshalltown’s first scoring drive just four minutes into the contest.

In the second half, though, there were a couple of plays in which the Railsplitters broke contain. The first was a 50-yard touchdown catch-and-run from Evonte McGee to put Lincoln on the board, and the second was a Blake Butters run on a counter play in which the Railsplitters handed the ball off twice.

This play caused the Bobcats issues a couple of times, but Goodvin said the team handled the trickery well overall.

“Our guys were a little inconsistent reading guards, they don’t lie to you and that’s what we tell them,” Goodvin said. “I think for the most part they did a solid job and the effort makes up for some poor reads.”

Sandwiched between the two Lincoln scores was a kickoff return score by Drew Loney, who picked up an onside attempt and took it 50 yards to get the Bobcats’ final touchdown.

Up next for the Bobcats is a road trip to face 3-3 Des Moines Roosevelt Friday at 7 p.m.

Marshalltown 42, Des Moines Lincoln 13

At Marshalltown

Score by Quarters

DML 0 0 0 13 — 13

MHS 14 21 0 7 — 42

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

MHS — Dalen Huston 1 run (Johan Gomez kick), 8:00.

MHS — Allah Holmes 1 run (Gomez kick), 3:49.

Second Quarter

MHS — Huston 20 run (Gomez kick), 8:39.

MHS — Treshaun Brooks 7 pass from Huston (Gomez kick), 2:03.

MHS — Tate Riang 71 run (Gomez kick), :00.

Third Quarter

No scoring.

Fourth Quarter

DML — Evonte McGee 41 pass from Jackson Lamb (pass failed), 7:16.

MHS — Drew Loney 50 kickoff return (Gomez kick), 7:03.

DML — Blake Butters 44 run (Harry Ster kick), 2:26.

TEAM STATISTICS

DML MHS

First downs 9 16

Rushes-yards 28-98 26-228

Passing yards 63 127

Comp-Att-Int 7-10-0 10-16-0

Total offense 38-161 42-365

Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-1

Penalties-yards 6-28 6-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — DML: Javon Sanders 15-87, Butters 3-44, Damarius Parker 2-5, Team 1-(minus-15), Lamb 7-(minus-23); MHS: Riang 2-73, Huston 7-63, Holmes 6-27, Nick Rebik 2-32, Jayzek Lee 2-13, Xayvion Anderson 3-11, Caleb Kusserow 1-6, Davis Ragland 2-0, Devon Howell 1-0.

PASSING — DML: Lamb 7-10-63-0; MHS: Huston 9-15-119-0, Anderson 1-1-8-0.

RECEIVING — DML: McGee 2-43, Leo Jones 1-16, Aaron Guerrero 3-7, Sanders 1-(minus-3); MHS: Holmes 1-32, Brooks 3-28, Kusserow 2-22, Cory Smith 1-21, Lee 1-12, Rebik 1-9, James Reed 1-3.

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