The Bluffton Pirates will face off against the Kalida Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Bluffton is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to six goals last Monday, they were much more limited against Celina on Saturday. They fell just short of the Bulldogs by a score of 2-1. While losing is never fun, Bluffton can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio soccer rankings (they are ranked 335th, while Celina are ranked 110th).
Meanwhile, Kalida waltzed into their match on Monday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They came out on top against Kenton by a score of 3-1. Kalida found success even though the refs didn't miss a thing: Jayce Frye and Grady Kuhlman were both handed yellow cards.
Owen Grime and Landon Verhoff scored all three of Kalida's goals, bringing their combined season tally to 16 goals.
Bluffton's loss dropped their record down to 4-9-3. As for Kalida, their win bumped their record up to 10-2-4.
Bluffton came out on top in a nail-biter against Kalida in their previous matchup back in October of 2024, sneaking past 2-1. Will the Pirates repeat their success, or do the Wildcats have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps