DONNELLSON — Taylor Johnson hasn’t had much work this season as Fort Madison’s goalkeeper.
The Bloodhounds opened the season with three consecutive shutouts heading into Tuesday’s match at Central Lee, and the defense has kept every opponent from getting few shots on goal.
“It’s been pretty boring for me,” Johnson said. “It gets kind of cold back there.”
Business picked up against the Hawks, but it was another zero for Johnson and the Bloodhounds.
Johnson had six saves, including one on a second-half penalty kick, as Fort Madison took an 8-0 win.
“It was definitely nice to get some action,” Johnson said.
Central Lee (0-2) spent a lot of second-half time on the Bloodhounds’ side of the field, but Johnson was there to make the plays, particularly late in the half when a foul in the box led to a penalty kick for the Hawks. But Johnson stopped Audree Boyd’s shot to preserve the shutout.
“It was just reading her eyes, seeing if she knew where she wanted to go,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of a guessing game.”
Johnson admitted she still finds penalty kicks “a little scary,” but coach Carrie Burken knows her goalkeeper can handle them.
“She actually has a lot of PK experience for a varsity goalie,” Burken said. “We’ve had a PK shootout in every year she’s been a goalkeeper, and so I think the more you face them, you know what to expect.
“Her confidence, where she is, it’s, ‘I know how to read this, I know where this is going to go.’ And it works for her.”
“I think I’m more relaxed and less nervous about it,” Johnson said. “I know what to do.”
Fort Madison (4-0) scored seven of its goals in the first half. Natalie Randolph opened the scoring with a breakaway goal less than five minutes into the match. Teagan Snaadt scored three goals, Hadley Wolfe had two, and Reilynn Turnbull had one.
But the Bloodhounds’ offense went stagnant in the second half while the Hawks kept up the pressure.
“I think a lot of that had to do with us not possessing the ball more,” Burken said. “We weren’t doing a good job of possessing the ball. We needed to connect on passes more, and that’s something we need to work on.
“The second half was just not to get mercy-ruled,” Central Lee coach Antonio Estrada said. “Fort Madison has a lot of speed, and we saw that in the first half. Our main thing was to just hold them, while moving girls around to get them experience in different places.”
Fort Madison’s lone second-half goal came when Turnbull buried a shot in the upper left corner of the goal with 11:39 to play.
Estrada liked how his team responded in the second half.
“It’s something we can build on,” he said. “It showed the girls never gave up. They work hard in practice and you could see that, especially in the second half. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Burken said the second-half challenge by the Hawks was helpful as Fort Madison prepares for Thursday’s match at Burlington in a matchup of Southeast Conference title contenders.
“It’s definitely helpful to get more action, to get more reps, so we can see the holes that we need to correct in the defense,” she said. “This was the first real test for our defense. Obviously we have some things to work on, but not giving up a goal was really important.”
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