Lady Hounds impress in loss to North

FORT MADISON - Carrie Burken wanted her team to see the bigger picture, but she realized the immediate post-game snapshot wasn’t going to look the same.
Fort Madison’s girls soccer team ended the regular season with a 1-0 double-overtime loss to Davenport North on Thursday at the Baxter Sports Complex.
It was the third consecutive loss for the Bloodhounds (9-5), who start postseason play next week.
But Burken, Fort Madison’s coach, wanted her team to take away from the positives she saw in the defeat.
“Honestly, we had as many chances, if not more chances, than they did,: Burken said. “So I think looking forward into the progress of the program, we can look into the postseason and say, ‘We can play with these teams.’ And I think that’s an incredibly encouraging thing. No one feels that right now. But it’s encouraging going into next week and getting into (the postseason).”
Kristina DeReus’ goal with 37 seconds left in the second overtime was devastating, a blast from 20 feet out that slipped through the fingertips of Fort Madison goalkeeper Taylor Johnson, who had made every big play of the match to that point.
“It was kind of a fluky shot,” Burken said. “Nine out of 10 times, Taylor makes that stop. I think it was a tough that it ended that way, with 37 seconds left.”
It’s been a frustrating week for the Bloodhounds. They had a chance to be in position to get at least a share of the conference title last Thursday, but fell 2-0 at Burlington. Fort Madison then lost 3-2 at Mount Pleasant on Monday.
Burken, though, said she saw improvement, and that’s important with the postseason starting next Friday with a home match against Keokuk in the Class 2A regional tournament.
“We played so, so well,” Burken said. “Which is encouraging to me, because I didn’t think we played well Monday at Mount Pleasant. We played better in the second half (of Monday’s match), but I didn’t think we started out well.
“Our determination and our energy tonight was really good. And our hustle was really good. And how we fought was extremely good.”
Fort Madison had several scoring chances in the first and second halves.
Teagan Snaadt missed a shot on a breakaway 20 minutes into the match, then Hadley Wolfe missed from the right side with five minutes left in the first half.
Johnson came up with one of the biggest plays of the night with 15 minutes left in the second half when she secured the ball after a North shot hit the post and nearly got over the line.
The Bloodhounds had two more scoring chances late in the second half. Taegan Denning had a shot in front of the net snagged by North goalkeeper Emma Jouran, then Snaadt missed from the right side with 2:40 to play.
Fort Madison has been tested with back-to-back weeks of three matches. The Bloodhounds only had two this week, and now with some extra practice time has a chance to regroup for the postseason.
“There aren’t too many things (to work on),” Burken said. “We aren’t too far off. It’s just deciding when we’re going to shoot balls. Our decision-making needs to be a little better. But I can’t complain with how we played today.”