Hounds fight off Washington to stay perfect

FORT MADISON - Thirty days, Xander Wellman reminded his teammates.

 

It’s 30 days until the boys' soccer state championship matches in Des Moines, and Wellman and the rest of Fort Madison’s team wants to be playing there.

 

It is not going to be easy for the third-ranked (Class 3A) Bloodhounds, who needed Wellman’s third goal of the day to get away from Washington, 4-3, in Thursday’s Southeast Conference match at the Baxter Sports Complex.

 

The Bloodhounds (11-0 overall, 7-0 conference) are closing in on another league crown, but there is so much more at stake.

And they know what comes with the high ranking and the gaudy record.

 

“All week we’ve been talking,” said Wellman, a senior. “They wanted us. We put a number on our back, and there’s not plenty of places to go but down from where we are now. We knew every team we play wants to take us down. Kudos to them — they came here and they wanted it, more than us for a little bit. But we’re workers.”

 

Kevin Wellman, the Bloodhounds’ head coach and Xander’s father, said that work made the difference in this win.

 

“The guys were tired at the end,” he said. “They did a lot of work to make up for that it wasn’t as technically clean, as tight as we like it. They were doing work. They put it all out there and they squeaked by.

 

“It’s that lesson that sometimes you make up for lack of precise, technical skill, by just outworking. And you make your own luck by working hard. Did we get a little bit lucky on some things? Yeah. But we worked hard for it.”

 

Xander Wellman’s go-ahead goal came with 7:11 left in the match after the Demons (6-3, 4-3) tied the match with back-to-back goals earlier in the second half. The goal came after Washington goalkeeper Will Gilchrist Brock, who had injured his hand earlier in the match, couldn’t handle a ball from Fort Madison’s Leif Boeding. The rebound came to Wellman, who knocked a shot into the open net.

 

“(Gilchrist Brock) definitely wasn’t trusting his hands very much,” Xander Wellman said. “He didn’t get a very good initial block on it, and it came down right on my foot. I envisioned if the ball came back to me, to just keep it low, keep it simple. I was just trying to stay composed on it.”

 

The Bloodhounds’ defense and goalkeeper Oliver Santiago did the rest, keeping the Demons in check for the remainder of the match.

 

Washington pressured Fort Madison throughout the first half, but the Bloodhounds led 2-1 at halftime.

 

“I was hoping that we would be able to come out a little better in the first 10 minutes,” Kevin Wellman said. “They’re a quality group of individuals, with a high level of skills, a very tactically aware soccer team. And we didn’t play well in the first 10 minutes.

They had a couple of really good chances early. We had some good ones, but theirs were dangerous.”

 

Fort Madison took a 3-1 lead just 65 seconds into the second half on Jacob Pothitakis’ goal before Washington rallied.

 

The Bloodhounds face a key weekend that could determine their postseason path, taking on Pella and No. 9 (Class 1A) Hudson in the Pella Tournament. Pella has eliminated Fort Madison from the postseason in the last two seasons.

 

“I think this was a good lesson for the weekend,” Kevin Wellman said.

 

The final 30 days are here for the Bloodhounds.

 

“There’s a lot of visualizing — looking at the schedule, looking at the rankings,” Xander Wellman said. “But we’ve got to play hard. That’s all there is to it.”