Lady Hounds end regionals with loss at BHS

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BY ETHAN LILLARD
PCC SPORTS

BURLINGTON- Fort Madison's girls soccer team finished regular season play with the least amount of goals ever allowed over the course of the regular season, holding opponents to an average of 1.875 points per game.

The Bloodhound defense stepped up in a big way in 2019, but Thursday during the opening round of regional play at Bracewell Stadium in Burlington, Fort Madison allowed five goals, falling to the Greyhounds 6-0 to end the season.

“The season was good,” Fort Madison Head Coach Sebastian Seifert said. “It's hard when you can taste more. Winning the conference, we had it in our own hands. We could have won conference had we beat Fairfield Friday night.

FM senior Maddy McVey chases down a ball in Thursday's loss to Burlington. The Hounds finished the season 9-8 and allowed the fewest goals in a season. Photo by Ethan Lillard/PCC

“I think we can be satisfied. This season was our sixth year and we've never conceded fewer goals, so that's a new record for us.”

The big issue for the Hounds Thursday came in the form of Bailey Wiemann.

Burlington's star junior broke the scoreless drought in the 14th minute. With the ball in the box, Wiemann tracked down the ball and sent it sailing into the bottom right corner for a 1-0 lead.

Three minutes later Burlington's Yarexia Molina took the ball all the way up the right sideline and passed it to Wiemann. Surrounded by two Hound defenders, Wiemann used her ball control skills to break the pressure and get the one on one with Fort Madison keeper Josie Pumphrey. This time Wiemann chose the left corner, extending Burlington's lead to 2-0.

Wiemann scored all of her goals in the span of ten minutes, as she raced up the right sideline past three Fort Madison defenders, again choosing the left corner for her third-straight goal. Burlington maintained the 3-0 lead heading into the half.

“We played with a back five, which we usually don't do,” Seifert said. “That was to allow us to have one person to step up as (Wiemann) moves laterally across the field. We did fairly well.

“We knew going into it she was the one to keep the ball away from.”

with the defensive focus on Wiemann, someone else on Burlington was forced to score. The problem, however, was that Wiemann was the one who assisted on the next goal.

Coming off a Fort Madison handball, Wiemann was passed the ball in the box. She then passed to Brooklynne Korschgen sent a shot to the left corner past Pumphrey for a 4-0 lead.

In the 14th minute Pumphrey redeemed herself with a nice jump save. She wished she could have used those hops a minute later, as Burlington put its fifth point on the board.

The ball was launched to the goal and didn't appear that it had a hope to go in. Even Pumphrey was sure she was going to stop it, but playing on the turf of Bracewell Stadium, the ball got an extra jolt off of the turf pellets, going over Pumphrey's head for the 5-0 lead.

“It caught me off guard,” Pumphrey said. “I wasn't expecting (the ball) to do that.”

Freshman Alana Simpson (4) plays a little defense on the Hounds side of the pitch Thursday in the Class 2A regional game at Bracewell Stadium. The girls lost 6-0 to end their season. Photo by Ethan Lillard/PCC

With just 30 seconds remaining in regulation, Wiemann put across another goal for good measure, as Burlington went on to win by the final of 6-0.

With the program finishing with one of its best seasons in program history, Seifert was optimistic that this season could show other athletes at Fort Madison that they can have success in soccer.

“The girls were a group of volleyball, players and basketball players,” Seifert said. “I hope (this season) helps us get out some more freshman next year and some other athletes that we have at school. I hope they see this is a good group of girls that enjoy playing soccer and that we can be competitive.”

Fort Madison finishes its season with a 9-8 record.

fort madison, girls, high school, iowa, Pen City Current, Regionals, varsity

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