Soccer Game Preview: Bennington vs. Standing Bear

The Bennington Badgers will face off against the Standing Bear Grizzlies at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Bennington has ten straight victories, Standing Bear has seven straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the pitch.

Bennington is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Nebraska's top teams: Elkhorn North, who was ranked seventh at the time (Bennington was ranked first). The Badgers' defense stepped up to hand Elkhorn North a 2-0 shutout on Thursday. The score was all tied up 0-0 at the break, but Bennington were the better team in the second half.

Austin Kaiser and Zander Hanish scored both of Bennington's goals, bringing their combined season tally to 19 goals.

Meanwhile, Standing Bear fought the good fight in their overtime matchup against Beatrice on Thursday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Orangemen by a score of 3-2.

Bennington pushed their record up to 10-0 with the win, which was their fifth straight on the road. The road victories came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only given up one goal over those five contests. As for Standing Bear, their loss dropped their record down to 0-7.