Hounds not urgent in loss to Nikes

FORT MADISON - The warning had gone out less than 24 hours earlier.
Fort Madison boys' soccer coach Kevin Wellman told his team after Monday’s win over Fairfield that Notre Dame-West Burlington, the Bloodhounds’ opponent the next night, was a team that liked to start fast and get an early lead.
Then the Nikes proved Wellman right, scoring two goals in the first 14 ½ minutes on the way to a 6-1 win over Fort Madison at the Baxter Sports Complex.
“They just played better soccer,” Wellman said. “They played more urgently than we did, and that's something we got to work on at practice, something we’ve got to work on when we watch film. We need to have a little bit more urgency when we play everywhere in the field, urgency getting back to play defense when we're in midfield, urgency to get the ball off our foot, especially in the backfield, urgency to send the ball to the forwards.
“Urgency. That’s the biggest thing.”
The Bloodhounds are still trying to get into a rhythm after not playing for 13 days after their season-opening tie with Williamsburg. They got off to a slow start in the 4-0 win over Fairfield on Monday, and Wellman told them they couldn’t have a similar performance against the Nikes.
“That long layoff with no game was tough,” Wellman said. “We started slow last night, but I think it's still a little bit of that tonight. of just not having any games, not having very many games.”
The Nikes (4-1) were always at least one step, and maybe a couple more, ahead of the Bloodhounds (1-1-1), and it showed from the beginning, as most of the first half was played in front of the Fort Madison goal.
Alessandro Markomichelakis got the Nikes going with a goal 10 minutes into the match, a shot that bounced off Fort Madison goalkeeper Karson Dixon. Tatum Warner scored 4 ½ minutes later, and the Nikes were in control.

Ashton West scored at the 19:21 mark for a 3-0 lead, then Fort Madison got its lone goal, a shot by Connor Horn with 3:45 to play in the half.
Whatever momentum the Bloodhounds had, though, was erased 50 seconds later on a goal from ND-WB’s Jordan Edgington.
Jayden Nanthan gave the Nikes a 5-1 lead with a goal with 16:37 to play, then Markomichelakis closed the scoring with his second goal with 27 seconds left.
The Nikes’ defense kept Fort Madison’s Henry Graham scoreless. Graham had just two shots in the first half.
“Same thing that Washington did to Henry last year,” Wellman said. “Every time Henry was on the ball, he had three guys around him. I mean, they're watching the scouting report. They see that Henry was our leading goal scorer. So they swarmed him.”
Wellman liked the way Horn tried to pick up the slack.
“He got some freedom out there,” Wellman said. “He made some good plays, scored a goal, pressured the goalkeeper a couple times, pressured their defense because they were really concerned about Henry, so that was good to see.”
Still, Wellman knows that there is a lot of season left, particularly in the Southeast Conference. He agreed with the assessment that assistant coach Matt Rump had of the match.
“Coach Rump said that is a good kick in the pants to try to help us refocus,” Wellman said. “Losing another to a nonconference team … we don't want to lose, of course, but we definitely want to be playing good in the conference, and you've got a lot of those games still in front of us, so hopefully we can learn from it.”