Lady Hounds ease into rematch with Burlington

FORT MADISON - Bailey Vaughn’s first-half goal was one of the many scored by Fort Madison’s girls soccer team in the 10-0 win over Keokuk in Friday’s Class 2A regional quarterfinal at the Baxter Sports Complex.
But it was her goal, a declaration she made as soon as coach Carrie Burken told the junior defender to move closer to the net on a corner kick.
“When she told me to move up, I said, ‘This is my opportunity,’” Vaughn said. “I was like, ‘That’s my goal.’ I took that opportunity, and I shot that goal.”
It was Vaughn’s first varsity goal.
“It was amazing,” she said. “I had a really good adrenaline rush and to be able to help the team was amazing. And as a defender, it really meant a lot.”
The Bloodhounds (11-3) advance to play at Burlington (13-2) in Tuesday’s regional semifinal. Fort Madison lost twice to the Grayhounds, the Southeast Conference champion, during the regular season. The 1-0 defeat on April 11 was in penalty kicks, then Burlington took a 2-0 win on April 29.
“I don’t think there is more motivation than to play Burlington again,” Burken said. “They’re our rivals, they’re someone we always circle on the calendar, and I’m sure they do the same thing.”
To get there, Fort Madison dominated another rival it has controlled over the last few seasons. It was the 12th consecutive win by the Bloodhounds over the Chiefs — the last six have been by a combined score of 43-0.
Fort Madison defeated the Chiefs 12-0 on April 22 in a match that ended at halftime because of the 10-goal mercy rule. This one went a while longer — Kara Lake’s goal with 14:15 left in the second half ended the match.
The Bloodhounds led 5-0 at halftime behind three goals from Teagan Snaadt, one by Hadley Wolfe, and Vaughn’s goal at the 25:12 mark of the half.
“I kind of hesitated at first, because I didn’t want to hit one of my teammates,” Vaughn said. “And then she kind of moved out of the way. I just kicked it, and hoped for the best.”
Fort Madison hadn’t played since a 3-1 loss at Davenport North last Thursday.
Burken knew her team had more chances for goals in the first half.
“I didn’t think we had a bad first half,” she said. “I thought we missed a lot of opportunities that we could have converted on. I just wanted to challenge them a little bit, like, ‘Yeah, we’re playing pretty well, but let’s see if we can step it up a bit.’”
Natalie Randolph, who was frustrated by several first-half misses, scored three second-half goals. Wolfe also had a goal.
Fort Madison had 20 shots on goal. Wolfe had two assists. Halle Menke, Adalyn Kruse and Molly Schulte each had an assist.