Lady Hounds still without a loss

A CHALLENGE

So I challenged them this game, if you see your teammate down, give them encouragement. If your teammate encourages you, don't stay down,respect that they're saying you're good and let it go.”

Carrie Burken, FMHS Lady Hounds head coach

FORT MADISON - It took a few seconds for Fort Madison girls soccer coach Carrie Burken to congratulate everyone involved in the first goal of Thursday’s 6-0 win over Mount Pleasant at the Baxter Sports Complex.
Even after the match, Burken tried to connect the dots on all of the passes that got Halle Menke the goal.
“It went from Charley (Huebner) to Hadley (Wolfe), to Halle, to (Teagan Snaadt), and back to Halle,” Burken said. “Yeah, that’s it.”
Burken’s message to the team is always “find feet,” and Menke’s goal with 17:19 left in the first half was the perfect example of that.
It could have been, Burken said, the Bloodhounds’ best goal of the season.
“It was perfect passing,” Burken said. “It was seeing the open pass. Able to see the open pass because someone is in a good position to receive a pass, creating angles for passing. And then the correct weight on the ball, like Halle’s ball to Teagan was the perfect weight. Teagan’s ball back to Halle was the perfect weight for her run. And so, just getting that understanding of people's speed and how to pass the ball and who's open, that's something we've been talking about a lot. That's something we wanted to get better at, was connecting between the lines.”
The connection between Snaadt and Menke on the final pass couldn’t have been better.
“Halle made a perfect run-through and honestly, she set me up,” said Snaadt, who had three of the Bloodhounds’ goals in the match. “And I was like, ‘You know what? She had that better opportunity there.’ And it was all her on that play.”
Fort Madison (5-0-2 overall, 3-0-1 Southeast Conference) had a lot of pressure on the Panthers (4-2-1, 2-2) in the first half, but didn’t break through until Menke’s goal. Snaadt had four shots on goal miss, and Kara Lake missed a scoring opportunity as well.
The Bloodhounds led 2-0 at halftime — Snaadt scored off an assist by Molly Schulte with 6:22 left — but knew they could have had more.
“I think we just really kind of broke them down in the first half,” Snaadt said. “We talked at halftime about what we were doing well, and I feel like we just targeted the things we were doing well and did them even better in the second half.”
“We talked about how we were getting good opportunities in the first half. We just weren't able to convert,” Burken said. “So we were just talking about when we can convert, what that looks like, what is open, and we just did a little bit better job of executing in the second half. And I think once we started getting a couple goals, I think confidence just grew as a team. And then shot-making tends to increase when you're confident.”
Lake gave Fort Madison a 3-0 lead with a goal while surrounded by three defenders. Then Reilynn Turnbull knocked in a deep shot with 5:44 to play for a 4-0 lead. Snaadt added her final two goals within the span of a minute to provide the final margin.
Fort Madison stayed in a tie for the conference lead with Burlington — the two teams battled to a scoreless draw last Thursday.
“It's not that we played poorly against Burlington, but something we've been talking about the last couple days of practice is being really positive with each other, because a lot of times when we're frustrated, it’s just, like, individually frustrated with yourself,” Burken said. “So I challenged them this game, if you see your teammate down, give them encouragement. If your teammate encourages you, don't stay down, respect that they're saying you're good and let it go. And I think we did that really well. And to me, when we're able to do that and we're able to play as a team and play selflessly and encourage one another. I think that's when we're at our best, because that's when we're at our most confident. And I think we saw that.”
Goalkeeper Ellie Hellman had four saves. The Bloodhounds still have not allowed a goal this season. 
“Our defense is doing amazing,” Snaadt said. “They never lay down. We’ve got Ellie back there in the goal, so many amazing saves. Without our defense and Ellie back there, these games would not be the score they are. We wouldn't be holding these teams to zero goals on us.”