Bulldogs start season with loss to Iowa Falls-Alden

HAMPTON—- The season did not start the way they would have liked for the Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs girls soccer team. The team fell to the Iowa Falls-Alden Cadets 10-0 at home on March 28.

Iowa Falls-Alden jumped out to a quick lead and would soon add on to it as with just under 30:00 left in the first half Iowa Falls-Alden led 3-0. The Cadets continued to put pressure on the Bulldogs throughout the game as they kept the ball deep in the Bulldog’s side of the field.

The Cadets made it 4-0 with 22:20 left to play in the half before adding a few more goals to make it 6-0. Near the end of the half with the score 8-0, the Cadets scored once more with two seconds left to make it 9-0. The Cadets then scored their final goal in the second half.

The pressure from the Cadets made it hard for the Bulldogs’ defense as the Cadets had 53 total shots and 32 shots were on goal, while the Bulldogs had only one shot on goal in the game.

Head coach Ben Schlachter said that the loss that it was a learning opportunity for the Bulldogs to see on the game tape what they have to do to work on the things the coaches said the team has to improve on.

“Sometimes putting it in front of them and letting them see it is a good teaching tool,” Schlachter said. “Hopefully they will look at that and understand what we are trying to talk about.”

Schlachter said that one of the big problems for the Bulldogs in the game was that they had multiple players trying to go for the ball at the same time and not communicating well with each other.

“That is what Iowa Falls does really well too is that they communicate and they stay in position,” Schlachter said. “That is what we are trying to install and it was difficult because we were missing seven girls yesterday and we only had one bench player so it was tough for us. But they battled and never gave up so I am proud of them for that.”

A positive for the Bulldogs was the performance of  freshman goalie Madison Heilskov especially when Schlachter said she is new to the position.

“She had a great game yesterday despite the goals and she had 19 saves in the first half,” Schlachter said. 

Heilskov finished the game with 25 saves and a save percentage of 71.4%.

Schlachter said that the team is working on changing their culture and that it is a process that is going to take some time and that during the game he was trying to keep the players focus off of the scoreboard.

“Wins are not always going to show up on the scoreboard right away,” Shlachter said. “I was trying to keep their focus off of the scoreboard and on what we are trying to do to get better and to take solace in the small victories when we do something right instead of getting caught up on what the scoreboard says. It is hard to do that but if they can do that and continue to stack up some of these small victories then they will show up in the scoreboard.

The team’s next game is on the road on April 4 at Webster City at 5:30 p.m.