Western Branch is 1-8-1 against Grassfield since March of 2017 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Bruins will venture away from home to challenge the Grizzlies at 7:00 p.m. The two teams are strolling into their matchups after big wins in their previous games.
Western Branch headed into their last game having not scored more than one goal for four straight, but Indian River let them put that streak behind them. The Bruins' defense stepped up to hand the Braves an 8-0 shutout on Tuesday. Given Western Branch's advantage in MaxPreps' Virginia soccer rankings (they are ranked 77th, while Indian River are ranked 208th) , the win wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Grassfield had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 3.8 goals) and they went ahead and made it five on Tuesday. They put the hurt on the Bulldogs with a sharp 6-1 victory. Grassfield's winning goal came courtesy of Landon Eberle.
Grassfield's win bumped their record up to 6-2-2. As for Western Branch, they now have a winning record of 5-4.
Western Branch beat Grassfield by a goal in their previous meeting back in April of 2024, winning 2-1. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Bruins since the team won't have the home-pitch advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
