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WEST DES MOINES -- The Marshalltown football team's season reached its ceremonious end on Friday night at Valley Stadium.
The Bobcats ended the season on a five-game losing streak, falling 43-0 to No. 2 Dowling Catholic in a Week 9 matchup.
The contest marked Marshalltown's fourth shutout loss in its last five games and ended the program's first 1-8 campaign since 2017, slowed right out of the gate by a season-ending injury in the opening week.
The loss of senior quarterback Jamison Niehouse loomed over the entire year and left the Bobcats to a final scoring average of just 8.33 points per game.
Facing defending state champion Dowling (8-1) was hardly the way the Bobcats wanted to go out, but it didn't change their effort until the final whistle.
"Proud of them for keeping going out there and keeping at it and fighting," MHS head coach Adam Goodvin told KFJB-TV. "It's hard, right? You look at the big picture of the season, but if your mindset's set on that, you don't stand a chance. That's just simply not how you play the game of football and we've got that through our kids' heads. You've gotta play it the right way, which is hard and fast and physical and be relentless and win each play -- that's the goal."
Marshalltown was held to 112 yards of total offense by a Dowling defense ranked atop Class 5A by allowing just 9.89 points per game. Friday's finale was the fourth shutout by the Maroons as well.
Bobcat senior running back Tyler Englund finished with 14 carries for 62 yards, while sophomore quarterback Larrs Schoenfelder had seven carries for 10 yards. Schoenfelder was 2-for-12 passing for 34 yards, connecting with senior Zane Moore once for 22 yards and junior Garrett Thede once for 12 yards.
Senior linebacker John Schoenfelder had a team-high 11 tackles and finished atop 5A with 119.5 tackles (second across all classes).
"We ran into a very talented football team tonight that's gonna experience a lot of success this postseason and who knows how far they'll go," Goodvin said of Dowling. "As far as our guys go, I didn't think the effort was missing tonight. It's just a very tough matchup, no doubt about it."
Dowling totaled 269 of its 348 yards on the ground, riding its formidable offensive line to 8.4 yards per carry and five touchdowns. Grayson Pennington finished with 86 yards and two scores, Henry Smid had 66 yards and two TDs, and Max Flander added a touchdown run for the Maroons.
Marshalltown signs off a senior class that lists 22 players on the roster.
"It is a fun group," Goodvin said, "a lot of really good kids. I really enjoyed watching them grow not only on the football field but as leaders and young men. They've experienced a lot of adversity and they just keep showing up and fighting and that's all you can ask for."