FORT MADISON - It’s a three-match week for Fort Madison’s girls soccer team that includes an early, yet crucial, conference matchup, so having a win decided by the 10-goal rule wasn’t something that was going to draw a complaint from coach Carrie Burken.
Fort Madison’s 10-0 win over Fairfield on Monday night at the Baxter Sports Complex started a big week for the Bloodhounds (3-0).
Fort Madison has outscored its opponents 24-0 to start the season, and it was apparent early that the Bloodhounds were going to control this one.
So Burken got the chance to start rotating in her entire roster to keep her players fresh in a week when the Bloodhounds also play Tuesday at Central Lee and Thursday at 15th-ranked Burlington in a matchup of Southeast Conference contenders.
It’s a big-picture view for Burken that also includes developing depth.
“We don’t get a lot of JV games in the conference — a lot of teams don’t have a JV team,” she said. “So the more time (younger players) can get, the more development they can get.”
Getting everyone some rest was something Burken talked about with her team during the match.
“They’re competitive,” she said. “They want to be in, they want to be scoring goals. I was just reminding them, hey, we’ve got three games this week, we’ve got Burlington. Every game is important, so the more we can rest them, the more we can rotate, the more that can help us down the road.”
Her players understood.
“This week is very important,” said junior Teagan Snaadt, who led the Bloodhounds with four goals while adding an assist. “So it’s going to be important to recover after games, and be ready to go.”
Snaadt gave Fort Madison an early lead with two goals in the first 6 minutes, 42 seconds. Her third goal, at the 15:26 mark, put the Bloodhounds up 4-0.
That allowed Fort Madison a chance to work on the little things that might make a difference in closer matches.
“I think what it does is it gives them drive, they want to keep it going,” Burken said of the quick start. “But it also says we’re doing really well, but let’s maybe think about what we can be doing better. So I think it lets us work on nuance things that maybe we’re not able to think about in a tight game where there’s a lot of pressure.”
“Getting off to a quick start is just a confidence booster,” Snaadt said. “It makes it so we can try some different things that we can’t always do against some of those teams out there you don’t score on right away.”
Fort Madison led 6-0 at halftime, then Reilynn Turnbull opened the second half with two goals in the first 6:50. Snaadt’s final goal of the night off a Halle Menke assist made it 9-0, then Hadley Wolfe closed the scoring and the match with a goal with 1:49 left.
Wolfe had two goals and three assists. Natalie Randolph had a goal and three assists. Emma Snaadt had a goal, and Jenna Hellman had an assist.
“I think we’re playing with a lot of team chemistry,” Teagan Snaadt said. “We’re making good connections, good passing. We’re just flowing. And we’re getting better every single game.”
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