The Bobcats fell to 0-6 and head to Ames next Friday. Waterloo West, receiving votes in this week’s Class 5A Associated Press poll, improved to 5-1.

The Wahawks scored 31 of their points off Marshalltown’s turnovers, including a game-ending fumble return for a touchdown by Deztin McMurrin, who also started the game with a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

“For whatever reason, we just couldn’t put an end to it,” Marshalltown head coach Adam Goodvin said. “It just sort of snowballed, and it was frustrating, very frustrating, because we thought we did some good things with how we moved the ball, our defense played hard, and we just kept stepping on our own foot.”

Marshalltown fumbled on its first possession after the West kickoff return, leading to a 11-play scoring drive for West capped by a Nathanael Kline 5-yard run.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE – Marshalltown’s Juan Pablo Perez, left, brings down Waterloo West receiver DeSean Kemp during the first half of Friday’s football game at Leonard Cole Field.

The Bobcats punted away on their next drive, but on West’s first play from scrimmage Lincoln Barker fell on a loose ball for a Marshalltown takeaway.

Unfortunately for the hosts, MHS fumbled on their next play as well, and four plays later West scored on a 17-yard reception for Myles Gardner and a 21-0 Wahawk lead.

Luis Monge Jr.’s 28-yard field goal were the only points for the Bobcats in the first half, trailing 31-3 after 24 minutes.

When the first drive of the second half ended in another fumble, the Bobcat defense stepped up to get a three-and-out and got a big shot in the arm on a 61-yard touchdown run for Tyler Englund, bursting through a hole on the left side and sprinting to the end zone.

Englund had nine carries for 115 yards on Friday.

“He’s a patient runner who works hard every day for us,” Goodvin said of Englund. “You got to give credit to the guys up front, we had some good down blocks on that, Jaxson Hinkle had a good kick block and Tyler found a seam and went. He had good vision.”

The Bobcats appeared to have some momentum when they forced another Wahawk punt that was nearly blocked in the end zone and instead gave MHS field position in West territory. But after a seven-play drive, Michael Moeller snagged an interception for West at the Wahawk 10-yard line to halt the Bobcats’ momentum.

The MHS defense stood tall once more, and another punt gave the Bobcats possesion near midfield, only for another fumble lost two plays later. This time, West cashed in with a time-grinding drive capped by a Brady Dean 1-yard sneak.

Aiden Smitherman gave the Bobcats a little excitement near the end of the game with a 45-yard reception from Jacob Hayes, but it wasn’t enough to catch the Wahawks.

“Our kids really fought,” Goodvin said. “The frustrating part was what felt like a million mental errors. That hurt us.”

The way Goodvin sees it, there’s no better time to work on putting everything back together than a prep week for a road tilt at Ames.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got guys showing up every single day to practice and giving great effort,” Goodvin said. “Hopefully we can cut those mental errors down. … We’ve challenged the kids, and it’s a big challenge, because we’re not in a great position, not where we want to be, or where we thought we’d be. But here we are — we’re going to attack it the best we can.”