Scrum goal ends Lady Hounds season

BURLINGTON — It had the feeling of one of those matches that would be decided by a maddening goal, and so it was for Fort Madison’s girls soccer team.
Hunter Pender’s goal in a mad scramble in front of the Bloodhounds’ net was the decider in Burlington’s 1-0 win in Wednesday’s Class 2A Region 4 semifinal at Bracewell Stadium.|
The Grayhounds (13-2-2) play at Cedar Rapids Xavier (6-3-4) in Friday’s regional final.
It was an emotional end to another strong season for the Bloodhounds (13-3-2), who finished one game behind the Grayhounds for the Southeast Conference title and did everything to have a chance in this match.
“I'm super proud with how we played,” Fort Madison coach Carrie Burken said. “We did everything we talked about, and it's just … they had opportunities, we had opportunities, and they got one to go in. We couldn't get ours to go in.
“But yeah, I'm super proud of how we played. We showed the quality of team that we are. This is how close the game between these two teams should be.”
Pender’s goal came two minutes into the second half. Fort Madison goalkeeper Ellie Hellman, who was brilliant all night with 11 saves, had stopped a shot, but the ball bounced into a crowd in front of the net. Pender found an opening and knocked in the loose ball.

Burlington had a chance to add to its lead 12 minutes later with a penalty kick, but Hellman made the save on the shot by Brooklyn Sparrow.
Hellman had another save on a breakaway shot with 11:55 to play, keeping Fort Madison alive.
“She has really grown all season,” Burken said of Hellman, who volunteered to play goalkeeper at the beginning of the season. “So much of playing goalkeeper is about confidence and positioning and communicating, so to come up with the stops that she did tonight, I think it just shows how much she has learned this season. It shows how good of a player she is, and just being able to adapt and play a totally new position, and then make those kind of saves, says a lot about her.”
Fort Madison had good scoring opportunities throughout the second half. Teagan Snaadt’s shot off a pass from Hadley Wolfe was saved by Burlington goalkeeper Traeh Pender. The Bloodhounds also had two corner-kick chances in the span of a minute and couldn’t get a good shot.
The Bloodhounds’ best scoring opportunity in the first half came when Reilynn Turnbull’s shot off a rebound went over the net.
Fort Madison loses four seniors — Snaadt, Bailey Vaughn, Naomi Ramatowski and Allison Lamb. Snaadt was the Bloodhounds’ leading scorer this season with 36 goals.
“I feel like it's kind of hard to put in perspective what this season was at this point, but obviously we had a lot of success this season. I think that's just coming down to people who come back every year and just work hard and develop,” Burken said. “Every season, I feel like we're always in a good position to win the conference. We're in a good position to compete and get to the second and third round of (regionals). So that's just really exciting. But as far as what this specific season means, I feel like I don't necessarily know what that is yet, but I just know I'm really proud of this group and proud of how they competed every single game.”