Claire Bonzer’s insurance goal proved to be worth every penny of the premium.

The Marshalltown girls’ soccer team got out to a three-goal lead before holding off Des Moines Lincoln’s comeback attempt for a 3-2 win Friday at Leonard Cole Field, lifting the Bobcats to their first win of the spring.

A little added coverage went a long way for Marshalltown (1-2), which needed every goal it got by the time the clock expired.

Des Moines Lincoln (0-1-1) scored twice in a span of three and a half minutes to cut the Bobcats’ lead down to one, but the Marshalltown defense managed to resist over the final 11 minutes, 19 seconds, to seal the first win for first-year head coach Kameron Nehring.

“It feels great knowing that we were able to play two hard games and then come out and continue our confidence,” Nehring said.

The Bobcats fell 3-0 at Des Moines Roosevelt on Monday night but came out strong in their home opener. Lilyia Christen scored both Bobcat goals in the first half within a span of seven minutes, striking first on a well-placed cross from Bonzer. Christen beat Lincoln goalkeeper Stephanie Terrazas to the ball and got enough of it to bounce it by her, putting Marshalltown on the board first at the 4:27 mark.

Another perfect pass put Christen in position to find the back of the net again. Itzabella Meraz caught up to a long pass into the right corner, and she dropped it back to midfielder Fatima Ramirez Rosas. Her subsequent cross into the box caught Christen right in stride, and the senior forward finished with a redirection that caught Terrazas going the wrong way.

“That was an amazing goal by her,” Nehring said. “That was huge. I honestly was like ‘oh my gosh, she’s offsides,’ but she was in the perfect place at the right time and (it was) a beautiful cross in.”

Des Moines Lincoln fired out of the halftime break with determination, pressuring the Marshalltown defense from the opening whistle. MHS goalkeeper Sophia Valdez Chavez made a trio of saves in the second half to help stave off the Railsplitter rally.

Leading 2-0, Marshalltown earned a throw-in in its offensive third, and Meraz’s pass mingled through the zone as a pair of Bobcats passed on the chance to play it. Bonzer received the bouncing ball, brought it to her right foot and turned to shoot a well-placed shot into the upper 90 from 19 yards away.

The three-goal lead wasn’t safe, however, as Lincoln fired back. With 14:46 remaining, Ashley Flores-Garcia floated a corner kick into the goal area, but the ball bounced off MHS defender Jorja Janssen and past Chavez for the goal.

The Rails cut the deficit to one courtesy of another corner kick by Flores-Garcia that came down at the foot of Trinity Kidder, whose light flick toward the goal glanced off a Bobcat defender and out of Chavez’s reach with 11:19 to play.

Marshalltown hunkered down and defended the rest of Lincoln’s advances, running out the clock on their first win.

“I felt like we took a turn a little too quick,” Nehring said. “I think we got comfortable and that’s when I think our flaws, I would say, showed a little bit. Then when things got a little bit more serious, the communication came back.

“We’ve been hyping up that we need to fix our communication through and through, and I think in the first half especially we came out with a lot of confidence in our adjustments. … I just wish we took that into the second half, but I think they knew what they needed to fix and they fixed it right there at the end when it mattered.”

Lincoln outshot the Bobcats 12-10, unofficially, but Chavez finished with one more save than Terrazas, 5-4. The Railsplitters had five corner kicks to Marshalltown’s one, producing both of their goals, but Marshalltown endured.

The Bobcats are back out on the road next week with matches at Des Moines Hoover on Tuesday and Waterloo Columbus on Thursday. MHS hosts Ames next Friday night in its Iowa Alliance Conference North Division debut.