The Bobcats converted plenty of those chances, and learned some valuable lessons from the extra offensive reps that didn’t find the back of the net in a 6-0 thumping of Central Iowa United at Leonard Cole Field in Marshalltown.

Yuri Ramirez led MHS with two first-half goals and Kenya Gomez Reyes, Lilyia Christen, McKenna Coleman and Gennese Tellez added one goal each for the Bobcats, improving to 2-0 overall.

“It’s great to have several different goal scorers, have girls willing to take their shot,” MHS head coach Stacy Galema said.

Central Iowa United is now a Class 1A program for girls soccer, composed of West Marshall, Colo-NESCO and Collins-Maxwell students after Colfax-Mingo and Baxter opted to start a separate program under the Tigerhawk banner.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Marshalltown senior Stefani Gutierrez (15) shoots between a pair of Central Iowa United defenders during Thursday’s soccer match at Leonard Cole Field.

CIU’s roster is upperclassmen heavy but was outgunned by the Bobcats on Thursday as Marshalltown sent dozens of shots in CIU’s direction, with CIU keeper Annabelle Heller holding her own as much as possible against the Bobcats’ offensive onslaught.

“We definitely got excited moving forward, there were times when I think we had five people trying to push up on offense,” MHS head coach Stacy Galema said. “So it’s a matter of almost keeping them relaxed on offense and not pushing the whole time.

“We were trying to set something up perfect, trying to put something on our right foot instead of taking something with our left where they’d be less comfortable. Or maybe one, two more passes and we get a much easier shot.”

The Trojans broke midfield containment a few times but the Bobcat defense allowed just one corner kick on their end of the field and kept keeper Sophia Valdez Chavez from facing any serious offensive threats from CIU.

“We had a few different girls playing back there just from how we’ve been practicing this week,” Galema said. “They did a great job of keeping everything in front of them and it’s great to see their awareness of each other on the defensive line as something we really worked on after our game on Monday.”

Galema says at 2-0 to start the season, Marshalltown is exactly where it needs to be heading into a three-game week next week, starting with a road matchup at 13th-ranked (2A) ADM on Monday followed by Alliance matchups at home against Des Moines Roosevelt on Tuesday and on the road at Des Moines Lincoln on Thursday.

“We haven’t played [ADM] at the high school level in a while,” Galema said. “It’s good competition for us, they play a bit of a different style from what we’re used to and are definitely one of the stronger teams we’ve faced so far. It’ll be how can we contain them defensively – we’re very young and having to adapt to that style might be a little tricky.”