Des Moines East spoiled a strong first half for the Bobcats with a late goal before halftime, then added a quick second-half goal that stood up for a 3-2 loss for Marshalltown at Leonard Cole Field.

“We got some things rolling in the first half, and we wanted to come in with a little more pressure tonight after not getting much last night [against Des Moines Hoover],” Johannes said. “It just comes down to a couple of mistakes that we made.”

Marshalltown scored first on a Joel Ortiz header redirecting a corner kick by Aaron Ordaz Zambrano 13 minutes in.

East found their equalizer with 12 minutes to halftime on a Yandel Rodriguez goal but Zambrano put Marshalltown back on top seven minutes later when he followed his own shot that rang off the post, putting the rebound back on his foot and scoring his 10th goal of the season.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Marshalltown’s Alberto Zamago, right, tries to steal the soccer ball from Des Moines East’s Cristhian Villanueva Morales during Tuesday’s match at Leonard Cole Field.

“It comes down to us continuing to put in the work and saying that we can do this,” Johannes said. “You gotta believe that you can do it and then it comes down to executing what we’re telling them to do.”

It appeared that the Bobcats would go into halftime with a 2-1 lead, but a misplayed ball in Marshalltown’s defensive half ended up going directly to East’s Cristhian Villanueva Morales to tie the game with 30 seconds left in the half.

East was quick to strike again in the second half, with Axel Contreres booming a 30-yard chip shot out of the reach of Marshalltown’s keeper for the Scarlets’ only lead of the game.

The Bobcat defense was stout the rest of the way, but on offense, MHS couldn’t generate the same on-target looks they had in the first half.

Johannes and the Bobcat coaches took some extra time at the end of the match to talk with the guys and reflect on how this game compared to last year’s matchup with East, a 7-1 loss that Johannes said was one of the “lowest” points of the Bobcats’ season last year.

While it was a better showing tonight, the Bobcats continue to struggle in the standings, falling to 2-8 overall.

“We’ve got to find ways to win these kinds of games,” Johannes said. “Those last 10-15 minutes, East isn’t playing with any urgency. So we talked to the guys about finding that extra gear in each one of us in a game like that where we can start getting over the top.”

Marshalltown heads to Ames on Friday.