Soccer Game Preview: Mesa vs. Gila Ridge

The Mesa Jackrabbits will face off against the Gila Ridge Hawks at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Mesa has three straight victories, Gila Ridge has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the pitch.

Mesa's defense heads into the game hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Monday. They came out on top against Red Mountain by a score of 2-0. Given the Jackrabbits' advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona soccer rankings (they are ranked fourth, while the Mountain Lions are ranked 100th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Jose Barrios and Evan Romero scored both of Mesa's goals, bringing their combined season tally to nine goals.

Meanwhile, Gila Ridge didn't have quite enough to beat Cibola on Thursday and fell 2-1.

Mesa is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a nice bump to their 13-4-1 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 23 goals over those seven contests. As for Gila Ridge, their loss dropped their record down to 2-8.