Newton punched in quick scores on short field position in a dominant first half, and throttled the Bobcat offense in a 45-0 rout, spoiling Marshalltown’s homecoming at Leonard Cole Field.

Marshalltown falls to 0-4 overall and heads to Ottumwa next Friday. Newton climbs to 2-2.

“We gave them outstanding field position, which we can’t have,” MHS head coach Adam Goodvin said. “And we responded with poor plays that had poor outcomes in how we responded to that field position, and the results of that were just poor, nothing went well. And that’s on me.”

Marshalltown opted to attempt an onside kick on the opening kickoff but Newton grabbed the kick and capped a quick five-play drive on a 31-yard touchdown play from Caleb Mattes to Christian Ergenbright.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Marshalltown senior Caleb Kusserow (4) avoids the sideline as Newton’s Cole Smith (41) tries to bring him down during the second half of Friday’s football game at Leonard Cole Field.

The Cardinals blocked the Bobcats’ punt on their first drive, recovering the ball at Marshalltown’s 5-yard line and scoring immediately after with an Eli Stewart run.

The Bobcats got their second punt of the night off cleanly, but a big Newton return set the visitors up at Marshalltown’s 24-yard line and resulted in another Newton touchdown and a 21-0 Cardinals lead at the end of the first quarter.

Marshalltown’s defense got a three-and-out to start the second quarter but went three-and-out themselves on the ensuing offensive drive.

Newton grabbed points on each of their next three drives, including a touchdown scored off a Bobcat fumble just outside the Marshalltown red zone that Newton punched in with 15 seconds to halftime to ensure a continuous clock to start the second half with a 38-0 halftime advantage.

“We couldn’t get caught up in the score,” Goodvin said of his message to the team at halftime. “We had to challenge them to figure out what kind of heart they had and how deep they could dig, just looking for effort all around.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown sophomore linebacker Nick Wise, bottom, drags down Newton wide receiver Dalton Mowbray (2) for the tackle during the first half of Friday’s football game.

The Cardinals added a second-half touchdown of their first drive of the half.

Aidan Smitherman provided a defensive highlight for Marshalltown late in the game, grabbing an interception off a ball deflected by Ethan Gorsuch.

But the rest of Friday’s game is one the Bobcats would largely want to forget. Marshalltown was held to 46 yards of total offense, including minus-12 yards of rushing.

“We’ve got a young group where we’ve got to use this as a learning experience that we can’t take practices off,” Goodvin said, “we can’t be not mentally ready to play football games. We’re looking for our older guys to be leaders and step up, shut things down when we’re doing things that aren’t how we do things.

“Each of us, individually, have to take a look in the mirror and figure out how much heart we have. We’re in a tough situation and it’ll be a test to see how our kids respond next week, see if we can have short memories and get back to work.”