Opposing teams don’t even identify Claire Bonzer by number or name. When readying their defense for action, they describe Class 3A’s second-leading scorer as “she” or “her.”

Everyone knows who they’re referring to, too.

The Marshalltown girls’ soccer team overcame a slow start and finished off Fort Dodge for a 3-1 victory in Friday’s Iowa Alliance Conference North Division finale at Leonard Cole Field, with Bonzer tallying the Bobcats’ final goal to reach 18 for the season.

Gennese Tellez corner kicks provided the first two goals for Marshalltown (6-5, 1-2), which went into the halftime with a 1-0 lead against a Fort Dodge (2-6, 0-3) squad that has now lost six in a row to the Bobcats.

Marshalltown got 11 shots and seven on them on goal in a first half that frustrated the home team offensively. Fort Dodge’s decided focus on Bonzer took some adjustment at the intermission that eventually led to success up front.

“I had a whole bunch of people marking me, but having more people man-marking me means more people have open space, so it’s really nice to have that,” Bonzer said. “It was good (to score), but I knew I could have done better.

“I think it was nice to have a talk with our team (at halftime) just to figure out what we needed, and then I think we had more more of an urge to be there and get to the ball.”

The Bobcats broke the scoreless tie on an own goal, as Tellez’s corner kick in the 31st minute caught Fort Dodge goalkeeper Maleah Landfair too far off the near post. The ball skipped at Landfair’s feet and found the net for a 1-0 Marshalltown lead.

In the 55th minute, Tellez took a corner kick that glanced off Landfair’s hands and into the back of the net for a 2-0 Bobcat advantage.

“I wasn’t trying to score at all,” said Tellez, a junior midfielder. “I was trying to get it more in the penalty area so we could just get a header or touch it. It worked out.”

The Bobcats had 10 corner kicks on the night as Fort Dodge’s defense was content to kick the can down the road and shorten the match. Tellez took nine of them.

“Every time I see it’s a corner I’m like ‘oh, I want it,’ and I run to it,” Tellez said. “I guess it’s just my power on the ball. I have pretty good contact with it and I know how to control it a little more.”

Less than five minutes after the Tellez goal, Marshalltown got its 3-0 lead when a cross into the box from freshman Kaylee Nunez skipped through to junior forward Keira Halsted, who used a deft touch to put the ball at Bonzer’s feet.

Landfair had no chance at this one.

“I almost feel proud of myself for getting that attention and being the person they look out for,” Bonzer said. “I feel like I earned that.”

Fort Dodge senior forward Abigail Hernandez capitalized on a turnover by the Marshalltown defense with 3:16 left, finding the ball with space behind the back line for a hard shot over the head of MHS junior goalkeeper Sophia Valdez Chavez.

It was the only one of the Dodgers’ seven shots on goal that found the back of the net.

“If we can’t communicate, we are a very, very slow-going team,” said MHS head coach Kameron Nehring. “At halftime it was encouragement of we need to stop playing to their level. It’s finding out what we’re doing wrong and it’s always the communication.”

Friday’s match was the first game in a closing stretch of five out of six at home. The Bobcats entertain South Tama County/East Marshall on Monday at 7 p.m., followed by their final regular-season road game at Des Moines North on Tuesday.