Soccer Game Preview: Pella vs. Gilbert

The Pella Dutch will head out on the road to face off against the Gilbert Tigers at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.

Gilbert will have to contend with a Pella squad hungry for a win, something the team hasn't seen since April 26. Pella fell 4-2 to Indianola on Tuesday. While losing is never fun, Pella can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Iowa soccer rankings (they are ranked 95th, while Indianola are ranked 33rd).

Meanwhile, Gilbert strolled into their game on Thursday with an undefeated record and they left with the same. Their defense stepped up to hand Perry a 2-0 shutout. Give Gilbert's defense some credit: that's the team's 11th straight shutout.

Gilbert pushed their record up to 14-0-5 with the victory, which was their seventh straight on the road. Those road wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 21 goals over those seven games. As for Pella, their loss dropped their record down to 6-5-4.

Pella came out on top in a nail-biter against Gilbert in their previous meeting back in June of 2022, sneaking past 2-1. Do the Dutch have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Tigers turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.