Adam Goodvin knows this will be a tough pill to swallow for Marshalltown football.

The Bobcat head coach believes that MHS was the better team in Friday’s season opener with Mason City, but it was the Riverhawks that held on for a 26-25 win at Leonard Cole Field in Marshalltown.

Mason City (1-0) prevailed despite being shut out in the second half by a motivated Marshalltown squad that was unable to overcome a 26-17 halftime deficit.

Three big plays for the Riverhawks loomed large in a back-and-forth battle in the first half — Drew Hobart returned two kickoffs for Riverhawk touchdowns and successfully ran a double pass trick play for a 75 yard touchdown pass to Drayden Witt.

“We talked after the game about how details matter,” Goodvin said. “And those were three very significant details in that game that really mattered.”

Marshalltown scored first on a Davis Ragland 1-yard touchdown with 7:27 left in the first quarter, but Drew Hobart returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to answer for Mason City.

The point-after kick was off the mark, and Marshalltown added to their lead with a 3-yard Jacob Hayes plunge into the end zone with 3:11 left in the first quarter.

Hobart struck back once again with another 95 yard kickoff return, but Marshalltown’s defense held on the 2-point attempt to keep it at 14-12.

“It comes down to not squeezing in on the football like we’ve practiced every single day,” Goodvin said of the return coverage.

After a 46-yard field goal from Luis Monge Jr. to make it 17-12 Marshalltown, Mason City finally jumped to the lead with 1:40 left in the half on a six-yard Hobart sweep, adding two points for a 20-17 advantage.

Marshalltown went 3-and-out on the next drive, giving Mason City 29 seconds to halftime and capitalizing on the trick play that caught the Bobcat defensive backfield unaware.

“We just need to have eyes out there,” Goodvin said.

Sam Greazel galloped in from 26 yards out on Marshalltown’s opening second-half drive to make it 26-23 after a missed point-after attempt with 6:02 left in the third quarter.

From there, the Bobcat defense made two crucial stops — a goal-line stand to stop the Riverhawks at the MHS 1-yard line on a Ragland tackle, and then a Jamison Niehouse tackle of Dane Hanson in the end zone for a safety that cut Mason City’s lead to 26-25 with 10:06 left in the fourth.

Marshalltown had second-and-short late in the fourth quarter but went backwards on back-to-back plays, including a botched backwards pitch that Goodvin said resulted in the Bobcats having to punt instead of trying to go for it to keep the offense on the field.

Mason City got the one first down it needed to drain Marshalltown’s timeouts, and then the clock.

“They played with a lot of heart,” Goodvin said. “It was a very physical ballgame, and we had some guys dinged up, but it didn’t matter who we threw in there — they played hard and tough. Our kids wanted that, and it’s a really tough one to swallow because I thought we were the better team, the more conditioned team, the tougher team. It just comes down to those three details.”

Goodvin was happy with the Week 1 execution of MHS’ flexbone offense, which at times gathered some exceptional positive yardage.

“They bought in from day one, I’m proud of our kids,” Goodvin said. “We did a lot of great things, but we told them there’s things that need to be fixed, too.”

The Bobcats (0-1) welcome Cedar Rapids Jefferson to Leonard Cole Field on Friday.

“It’s tough, this first one ending the way it did,” Goodvin said. “We’ll wake up tomorrow and Sunday and realize that we can’t use a time machine to go back. We’ve got to keep our chins up, get back to work Monday and make sure we’re getting better in all three phases and being ready to play a good football game on Friday.”