Lady Hounds suffer setback at BHS

BURLINGTON — The scenario was the same.
The outcome was different.
Fort Madison’s chance to get at least a piece of the Southeast Conference girls soccer championship for the second consecutive year ended on Thursday night with a 2-0 loss to Burlington at Bracewell Stadium.
The 15th-ranked (Class 2A) Grayhounds clinched the outright conference title, scoring both of their goals in the second half.
Burlington (10-2 overall, 9-0 conference) got a goal from sophomore Hunter Pender five minutes into the second half, then sealed the win with Kevynn Siefken’s goal with 3:18 to play as the Bloodhounds (9-3, 7-2) were scrambling to tie the match.
“It’s disappointing to lose,” Fort Madison coach Carrie Burken said. “But I’m proud of how we played — I thought we played to our potential.”
The two teams shared the conference title last season after Fort Madison won the second matchup late in the schedule.
The same scenario was set up for this one — Burlington defeated the Bloodhounds 1-0 on April 17, but neither had lost a conference match since then.
The Grayhounds, though, had all of the title this year.
Both teams had first-half scoring opportunities. Pender had three shots that were saved by Fort Madison goalkeeper Taylor Johnson, and Fort Madison’s Teagan Snaadt had a shot go wide less than five minutes into the match.
But Pender finally connected early in the second half, blasting a shot from the deep left side that got over Johnson.
Fort Madison had several scoring chances in the second half. Snaadt had a shot on a carom in front of the net, but it was deflected in a crowd of Grayhounds. Snaadt had two more shots miss, and the Bloodhounds also had five corner kicks in the second half, including three in the span of a minute, but couldn’t score.
“We had chances,” Burken said. “We probably had just as many chances as they did, but it was like the first game, they put one away. And then they got the second one.”
Siefken’s goal ended any hopes for the Bloodhounds.
“It was a really close game,” Burken said. “If we’re not pushing for an equalizer goal, that second goal probably doesn’t happen.”
Fort Madison ended a two-week stretch of six matches.
“We are coming off a tough schedule — three games last week and two games to start this week,” Burken said. “I think we just got a little tired, and it showed.”
Fort Madison closes the conference season on Monday at Mount Pleasant before ending the regular season with a home match on Thursday against Davenport North.
“We’ve got a couple of more games to get ready for the postseason,” Burken said. “We’ll bounce back.”