Hounds early scoring nets win over Central Lee

FORT MADISON - The offensive outburst was quick and effective.

Fort Madison’s 3-0 win over Central Lee in Tuesday’s girls soccer match at the Baxter Sports Complex featured all of its goals in the first 14 minutes.

That was fine for Fort Madison coach Carrie Burken.

“We settled in really well,” Burken said. “We had some good energy before the game. We were very loose — we were playing around, but also, we had a lot of energy. So that was a really good thing, the mindset we had going into this, and I thought we played really, really well.”

The Bloodhounds (6-2), coming off a 10-0 win over Fairfield on Monday night, got their first goal from Laura Mehmert just three minutes into the match. Teagan Snaadt, coming off a six-goal night on Monday, scored 9 ½ minutes later to give Fort Madison a 2-0 lead. Halle Menke then closed the scoring with 26:06 left in the first half.

“I think having fun like we did last night, that sort of energy carried over to today, where you’re playing with confidence, you feel good after getting 10 goals yesterday,” Burken said. “So I think that really did lead into this game.”

Central Lee coach Antonio Estrada was disappointed with how his team started.

“This game, I felt the girls came into this like, ‘Oh, Fort Madison was going to beat us,’” he said. “I don’t know if you heard me, but I talked to them about having the mentality of going into this thinking we can win the game regardless of what the stats are, or what the records are, or what you’ve seen. We could do better, and I think we understood that.”

The defense of the Hawks (3-3) kept the Bloodhounds in check the rest of the match.

“I think in the second half they made the adjustment to have more numbers back,” Burken said.

“I talked to them about, when we were on defense, we can’t get too far apart,” Estrada said. “When they’re attacking, we have to get tight. Because when we got too far apart, that’s when they made their three (goals), and game’s over then. So we tightened up the defense, made sure we were talking back there.”

Central Lee had some offensive opportunities, but couldn’t convert. Fort Madison goalkeeper Taylor Johnson had four saves.

“I think our defense did a really good job of communicating,” Burken said. “And Taylor’s done such a good job of communicating when she’s going to get the ball, which just helps the defense. They don’t have to feel the same pressure.”

“I thought we were being lazy today (on offense),” Estrada said. “I told the girls, when we’re attacking, we just can’t watch the person with the ball do all the work. When we’re attacking, we have to attack in numbers, because if we’re not attacking in numbers, we’re not going to have the opportunities to crash the goal.”

Estrada said the match was a good lesson for his team.

“This game would have been a great game to record and look back on,” he said. “I liked the way they performed in the second half. I think they didn’t give up, they fought to the very end. And that’s all I ask for.”