The Ironwood Ridge Nighthawks will challenge the Sahuaro Cougars at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. The timing is sure in Ironwood Ridge's favor as the team sits on four straight wins at home while Sahuaro has been banged up by six consecutive losses on the road.
Ironwood Ridge's defense heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Wednesday. They put the hurt on Walden Grove with a sharp 3-0 victory. The Nighthawks might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four contests by three goals or more this season.
Byron Kappes and Aiden Gonzalez scored all three of Ironwood Ridge's goals, bringing their combined season tally to eight goals.
Meanwhile, Sahuaro fell victim to Mica Mountain and their airtight defense on Wednesday. They lost 5-0 to the Thunderbolts. While losing is never fun, the Cougars can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona soccer rankings (they are ranked 178th, while the Thunderbolts are ranked 17th).
Ironwood Ridge is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 9-1-1 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 32 goals over those eight matchups. As for Sahuaro, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-11.
Ironwood Ridge took their win against Sahuaro in their previous matchup back in November of 2023 by a conclusive 10-0. Will Ironwood Ridge repeat their success, or does Sahuaro have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
