Trojans’ big plays bury Bobcats, 68-22
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE
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Adam Goodvin's postgame message to his team was simple: flush it.
Easier said than done.
The Marshalltown High School football team suffered its worst loss to Waterloo East since 1970, falling 68-22 on Friday night at Leonard Cole Field.
The Trojans (1-1) ended the program's 13-game losing streak dating back to 2024 by piling up 543 yards of total offense. The Bobcats (0-2), who had won six of seven in the series since rejuvenating the former Big Eight Conference clash in 2014, had only four first downs and 44 total yards of offense in Friday's loss.
"Gotta flush it," Goodvin said. "It was really bad in almost all areas. If you sit there and feel sorry for yourself all weekend, we're not gonna be ready to come out and play next week."
Waterloo East's 10 touchdowns all came from at least 28 yards away as the Trojans' offense never entered the red zone. East ran the ball 31 times for 373 yards and five touchdowns, threw for 170 yards and three scores, and got two defensive touchdowns after gifting the Bobcats a 15-0 lead.
Marshalltown capitalized on early Trojan miscues to jump out to a two-score lead less than nine minutes into the game, but that was the bulk of the Bobcats' offense on this night.
Waterloo East's first play from scrimmage was a backwards pass by quarterback Zyvieon Jackson, and Marshalltown senior linebacker John Schoenfelder appeared to recover the loose ball as it entered the end zone.
The official originally signaled for a touchdown before overturning the call to a safey, giving the Bobcats a 2-0 advantage. Larrs Schoenfelder returned Waterloo East's ensuing free kick 39 yards to the Trojans' 30-yard-line, setting up the Bobcats with a short field.
Eight run plays later, Zane Moore crossed the goal line with a 2-yard touchdown run, giving MHS an 8-0 lead.
The Trojans' next possession was nearly as disastrous as the first. After a run for no gain and two incomplete passes, punter Mike Myers bobbled the snap and was pounced on by Moore and Garrett Thede at the Trojans' 5.
Quinn McLeod ran over a defender on his way to a 5-yard touchdown run, and the point-after kick by Angel Gomez gave the Bobcats a 15-0 lead with 6:03 left in the first quarter.
Adjustments by Waterloo East started to show up on its next drive, when Josiahs Spates took a handoff 80 yards to paydirt before it was negated on a blindside block penalty. The Trojans eventually punted the ball back to the Bobcats, but Marshalltown's offense ran into a wall from that point on.
MHS mustered just nine yards of offense over the final 42 minutes of the game, and the Trojans took over from there.
Jackson connected with Jadyn Perkins on touchdown passes of 49 and 29 yards, while 28-yard touchdown runs from Spates and Norshawn Pompilus put Waterloo East on top 27-15 at halftime.
Marshalltown's offense continued to struggle without senior quarterback Jamison Niehouse, who had surgery after last Friday's loss at Ames to repair a broken tibia. Sophomore Deegan Grant, who delivered a pair of huge pass completions in the fourth quarter of that Week 1 defeat, was picked off on two of his three attempts in the second half. The first was returned 42 yards for a touchdown by Ejvion Baugh to spoil Marshalltown's opening possession of the third quarter.
Jackson connected with Gianni Gary for a 56-yard touchdown pass with 4:04 left in the third quarter, giving the Trojans a 40-15 lead, and Spates broke free for a 62-yard touchdown dash on Waterloo East's next play from scrimmage.
Marshalltown ended East's 40-point scoring run by capitalizing on another short field midway through the fourth quarter, taking over at the Trojans' 6-yard line after a failed fake punt attempt from their own end zone.
Moore got his second touchdown of the game on a 7-yard run, but Mason Eison erased it with an 80-yard sprint to the end zone on East's next play.
The Trojans scored twice more over the final four minutes to take the game into the running-clock mercy rule.
It marked Waterloo East's biggest win over MHS since a 54-6 victory in 1970, and the most points the Trojans had scored in a game since beating Fort Dodge 68-18 in 1971.
"We talk a lot about adversity and shoot, I think this entire night we were facing adversity," said Goodvin, who was again without more than 20 roster players due to injury or ineligibility. "We just reinforced how we handle things and having that next-play mentality, which I think was absent tonight. When that focus is not there, then bad things like this happen."
Spates led East's ground gains with 10 carries for 144 yards and two touchdowns, while Pompilus got 97 yards and a score. Jackson completed 6-of-11 passes for 169 yards and three touchdowns, with Perkins making three catches for 104 yards and two TDs.
McLeod led the MHS offense with 16 carries for 31 yards, while Larrs Schoenfelder had seven carries for 16 yards and John Schoenfelder added three carries for 10 yards. The Bobcats had 13 negative runs on the night, and Grant's only completion went for a 1-yard-loss.
Marshalltown's participation report grew to 28 players this week, calling on a trio of newcomers to help fill the cracks. Seniors Colby Cross, Jacob Seberger and Luke Stalzer joined the Bobcat lineup and contributed to the defense, but a Class 5A-sized roster it is not.
Thirteen sophomores took the field on Friday night as Marshalltown battled low numbers and the suffocating heat. Both teams dealt with cramping and dehydration issues throughout the contest.
"It's no secret we're in a tough position with the amount of kids that we've got available to play in a varsity football game," Goodvin said. "It's tough, but we not once have made an excuse for ourselves. We're going about business and that's just how we operate, and the kids understand that.
"We've got two choices: we can feel bad for ourselves or we can put our heads down and get back to work on Monday. And we'll see which decision we make, and if our kids, if our leadership guys can take some things over and get this fixed. And I think they will."
Marshalltown goes back out on the road for a Week 3 game against Mason City (0-2). The Riverhawks have just two touchdowns this season -- one each in losses to Fort Dodge and Gilbert. Gilbert, like Marshalltown, runs the flexbone offense and lost their starting quarterback to injury in a Week 1 defeat.
"It's all the choices that we, that the kids make on an individual level that come together and give you a chance to be successful," Goodvin said. "So you've got a lot of kids that need to grow up in that area and it's hard. It doesn't just happen overnight, but that's where those upperclassmen, those leaders -- shoot, even some sophomores -- have got to take a big step forward and bring others with them."
Friday's game at Riverhawk Stadium has a 7:30 p.m. kickoff time.
Waterloo East 68, Marshalltown 22
At Marshalltown
Score by Quarter
W. EAST 7 20 19 22 -- 68
MHS 15 0 0 7 -- 22
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
MHS -- Safety, ball fumbled out of end zone, 11:51.
MHS -- Zane Moore 2 run (kick failed), 7:05.
MHS -- Quinn McLeod 6 run (Angel Gomez kick), 6:03.
WE -- Jadyn Perkins 49 pass from Zyvieon Jackson (Eduardo Pelico-Villatoro kick), :49.
Second Quarter
WE -- Josiahs Spates 28 run (Gianni Gary pass from Jackson), 11:47.
WE -- Perkins 29 pass from Jackson (kick failed), 3:33.
WE -- Norshawn Pompilus 28 run (kick failed), :19.
Third Quarter
WE -- Ejvion Baugh 42 interception return (Pelico-Villatoro kick), 10:14.
WE -- Gary 56 pass from Jackson (kick failed), 4:04.
WE -- Spates 62 run (pass failed), 1:20.
Fourth Quarter
MHS -- Moore 7 run (Gomez kick), 7:48.
WE -- Mason Eison 80 run (Pelico-Villatoro kick), 7:35.
WE -- Marquis Anderson 48 run (Keshawn Decatur run), 3:46.
WE -- George Tyler 30 fumble return (Pelico-Villatoro kick), 1:01.
TEAM STATISTICS
WE MHS
First downs 16 4
Rushes-yards 31-373 42-45
Passing yards 170 -1
Comp-Att-Int 6-12-0 1-5-2
Total offense 44-543 47-44
Fumbles-lost 3-2 3-2
Penalties-yards 12-89 3-35
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING -- WE: Spates 10-144, Pompilus 8-97, Eison 2-76, Anderson 5-56, Gary 2-2, Perkins 1-6, Majik Holmes 1-5, Jackson 2-(minus-13); MHS: McLeod 16-31, Larrs Schoenfelder 7-16, John Schoenfelder 3-10, Moore 5-3, Auztyn Kerwin 3-0, Terry Wyant 2-0, TEAM 1-(minus-4), Deegan Grant 5-(minus-11).
PASSING -- WE: Jackson 5-10-120-0, Mike Myers 1-2-1-0; MHS: Grant 1-5-(-1)-2.
RECEIVING -- WE: Perkins 3-104, Gary 3-60, Isaiah Thomas 1-6; MHS: Kerwin 1-(minus-1).