Michael Bowen is considered by many the godfather of youth soccer in Fort Madison.
The legendary long-time coach spent time at Marquette and Aquinas before becoming a legend as coach of the Fort Madison High School boys soccer team.
Nathen Bowen is carrying on that legend for the Bloodhounds, 15 years after his grandfather died from cancer.
Nathen Bowen, a senior defender for the Fort Madison High School boys soccer team, played a key role in the Bloodhounds’ 2-0 Southeast Conference victory over Burlington on Thursday at the Baxter Sports Complex.
Bowen not only helped shut down the Burlington offense, he assisted on the second goal of the game which gave Fort Madison some breathing room and sealed the win.
His grandfather’s place in history was not lost on Nathen Bowen.
“He started soccer in Fort Madison,” Nathen Bowen said. “It’s awesome to play for his legacy.”
It may not have been the prettiest match on a windy, chilly evening, but Fort Madison coach Kevin Wellman likes the direction his team is heading.
“It’s nice to have another shutout at home,” Wellman said. “I’m really proud of the way we are playing. We have a pretty stout defense. We moved the ball pretty well through the middle third, I thought. We’re still struggling a little bit in the attacking third, trying to get a little higher percentage of attempts at the goal. But we’re getting there.”
Fort Madison (4-1 overall, 3-0 SEC) found itself in a tussle with the Grayhounds (2-3, 1-2), who have a penchant for playing their rival close.
“Going into the game I knew it was going to be tough. Burlington plays us really tough. I told my guys it was 75 minutes worth of a dogfight,” Wellman said.
Each team had scoring chances in the first half, but BHS goalkeeper Will Steemer and Fort Madison keeper Oliver Santiago matched each other save for save in a scoreless 40 minutes.
“Burlington played really tough for most of the game,” Wellman said. “They had a couple looks at us. Oliver came out of his box several times when they tried to send the ball through and shut down their attack before it got started.”
“Will is coming along nicely,” BHS coach Tim Miller said. “We’ve been working with him. We’re trying to get him the experience as fast as possible. Will has been working really, really hard, both trying to learn the role and staying healthy.”
The match seemed destined for overtime as the teams remained scoreless through 66 minutes.
A Burlington mistake in the defensive end gave the Bloodhounds an opening. Xander Lumsden stole the ball and sent a through ball to Henry Graham. Graham beat Steemer to the lower right post for his 10th goal of the season and a 1-0 Fort Madison lead with 12 minutes, 59 seconds left.
“He’s always been a good passer of the ball with the side foot. He’s good at picking out a pass,” Graham said of Lumsden. “I’m thankful for my teammates that they are able to supply me with good passes and keep me in those good positions.”
That took some of the pressure off Santiago and the Fort Madison defense.
“It was a really close game to the end. We’re just glad we could alleviate that pressure, get that goal and finish,” Graham said.
“Towards the end when it was 0-0 about 70 minutes in I was feeling a little bit of pressure,” Bowen said. “We need to get a goal in. Their attack was getting on us. Once we got that first goal, we knew we had them.”
Still, Wellman knew the Grayhounds had plenty of fight left in them. Burlington kept up the pressure, but could not solve the Bloodhounds’ defense.
“We talked about how we had to weather the storm after that first goal because we knew they were going to come at us hard,” Wellman said. “We weathered that storm and then we got a little bit of possession back. We were happy with that, too.”
Fort Madison polished off the win as Bowen hit Boeding with a through ball and Boeding found the back of the net to complete the scoring.
“Burlington is our rival and we like to beat them,” Bowen said. “Our home field with all of our fans, we like to get the job done. The win meant a lot to us. We battled our hardest.”
“It’s a pretty big game. Big conference game,” Graham said. “They have been our conference rivals for a while. This was a good win on our home field.”
Fort Madison hosts Davenport North (2-2) at noon Saturday at the Baxter Sports Complex.
