Wolfe leads Hounds to regional semis

FORT MADISON - Hadley Wolfe has taken the approach of trying to be more relaxed during games this season.
The Fort Madison junior was at her best in Friday’s Class 2A regional quarterfinal against Keokuk, and it showed.
Wolfe scored five goals, including the one that ended the match, as the Bloodhounds won 10-0 at the Baxter Sports Complex.
Fort Madison (13-2-2) advanced to play at Burlington (12-2-2) in Wednesday’s semifinal at Bracewell Stadium.
Wolfe struck for two goals in the first 12 minutes to get the Bloodhounds going, and they kept attacking the Chiefs (1-14-1) for the rest of the match, rarely letting the ball get out of their end.
The strong start, Wolfe said, was “huge.”
“We have a huge game on whatever day it is coming up against Burlington, and so to have a good start going into that game is huge,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe has 17 goals this season, slightly below her previous numbers of 21 as a freshman and 23 as a sophomore, but she still has been a big part of the Bloodhounds’ offense — she is second overall in goal scoring and leads the team with 17 assists.

“She deserves this,” Fort Madison coach Carrie Burken said. “She works so hard. She is a good shooter. The number of goals she's had this season, I know it's probably lower than she would hope, compared to the previous two seasons. But that's not indicative of who she is as a player. She works really hard. She does so much for our team, so I'm really, really happy that she got some goals today.”
Asked what was the key to her big night, Wolfe said, “I think it's when I feel most relaxed during playing. And I've been trying to find a way to feel relaxed while playing, and just not think about soccer during the weekends, just take a break from it. And it sure worked, it seemed like.”
Burken agreed.
“This was probably, I feel like, the most free she's looked playing the whole year,  just confident,” Burken said. “So I don't know what it was. She looks more relaxed. She looks like she didn't have pressure, and her shots were just going in. So hopefully that's a really good sign of what could potentially happen on Wednesday.”
Teagan Snaadt added three goals for the Bloodhounds, all in the first half. Her second one, with 14:06 left in the first half, came when Keokuk goalkeeper Relina Wong misplayed a shot. Snaadt leaped over Wong, who had fallen in the grass, and knocked the ball in to give Fort Madison a 4-0 lead.
|Reilynn Turnbull scored with 1:54 left in the first half to put the Bloodhounds up 6-0 at halftime. Wolfe scored twice in the first 4½ minutes of the second half, then Halle Menke scored when her shot went through the hands of backup goalkeeper Divya Kirchner.
Wolfe finished the match with a breakaway goal with 15:19 to play.
Now the Bloodhounds get the Grayhounds, who edged them by one game to win the Southeast Conference title. The two teams battled to a scoreless draw in their first matchup, then Burlington won 3-0 on May 5.
“The last time we played them, when we lost 3-0, I don't feel like it was a 3-0 game,” Burken said. “I feel like we played better than that. It just happened to be 3-0 because of a couple of bad markings on corner kicks and then an unfortunate deflection. So I think it'll be a close game. I think we now understand what it's going to take to beat Burlington, and so we have to be intentional with doing the things we need to do in order to be successful against them.”