Lancers precision overwhelms Fort Madison

ELDRIDGE — The emotion of the season ending hadn’t quite caught up to Fort Madison girls soccer coach Carrie Burken in the minutes after Thursday’s 7-0 loss to North Scott in the Class 2A Region 4 final.
But she knew what the Bloodhounds had accomplished this season, and what they had shown even in the final defeat.
“I don’t know if it’s sad yet because I don’t feel like it’s hit me yet,” Burken said. “It’s hard to be sad with the season we had. Even losing 7-0, how we played is indicative of who we are as a team, which is a lot of grit, a lot of determination. Full effort always, fighting for each other. So yeah, can’t be sad when we played we did with the effort they gave.”
The Bloodhounds (14-3-1) were in the state rankings for the first time — they came into the postseason ranked 15th — and to get to the regional final they snapped a long losing streak to Southeast Conference rival Burlington.
All three of their losses were to ranked teams — Burlington early in the season, Iowa City West in the final regular-season match, and then this one against the No. 4 Lady Lancers.
“We had a great season,” Burken said. “I thought our level of soccer was really high for our team and who we had. For our area, for our soccer, that says a lot about the quality of our team, which is so, so high.”

North Scott, which hasn’t allowed a goal in its last six matches, never let the Bloodhounds mount any sort of attack or maintain any sort of possession. Fort Madison had just one scoring opportunity, but Halle Menke’s shot off a free kick in the first half went over the net.
“It’s just a different school,” Burken said. “We were looking at the grass on this field and we were like, “Man, how much does it cost to maintain this grass?’ They’re just different because they’re girls who play club soccer, play soccer all year round. They’ve probably been playing since they were five years old. It’s a very different sort of soccer environment here — it’s always going to be tough to compete with those kinds of teams.”
North Scott was attacking from the opening whistle — the first shot on goal came just 45 seconds into the match — and the Lady Lancers continued to pressure Fort Madison’s defense and goalkeeper Ellie Hellman.
The score wasn’t indicative of Hellman’s performance — she finished with 19 saves.
“Oh, she was phenomenal,” Burken said. “I know she’s going to be kicking herself for the last goal that went through her legs. But she made so many big plays. She’s a player who’s not scared of the big moment, the big games.”
Reese Barnett and McKenzie Moeller each had two goals in the first half as the Lady Lancers built a 4-0 halftime lead. Barnett had two more goals in the second half, and Sawyer Koberg closed the scoring with a goal with 26 minutes remaining.
Fort Madison loses three key seniors in Menke, Hadley Wolfe and Izzy Behne. Wolfe, a 100-goal scorer for her career, had 44 this season, the most in Class 2A. Menke, who had 50 assists for her career, had 21 this season, which also led Class 2A. Behne was a key part of the Bloodhounds’ defense.