The Aplington-Parkersburg girls and AP/DNH boys soccer teams will begin their seasons Thursday against GC-GR. The boys teams will meet in Reinbeck and the girls teams will play in Aplington.
The United boys will begin their season later than scheduled. Monday’s game against Denver was postponed. They’ll look to build on last year’s growth with nine returning starters, including goal leader Walker Weedman and two-year goalkeeper Adrian Huisman. But Head Coach Perry Bernard says the defending Class 1A runner-up will provide the toughest test of the season.
“GCGR has always been a strong, fast, physical team,” Bernard says. “So we’ve definitely been practicing to go against them. I think we did pretty well against them last season, considering what they did to everybody else. We kind of held in there a little bit better than a lot of the teams did. GCGR, without a doubt, is going to be our biggest competition.”
GC-GR will play their first official game after tying with Cedar Falls 2-2 in a jamboree on Monday. The Rebels have six starters back from last year’s 20-1 team, including goal leader Isaac Clark. The Rebels won 4-2 when the teams met last year. The game will start at 5:00 p.m.
The Falcon girls are coming off a 7-8 season that included its first postseason win since 2017. Goal leader Carley Hook is back for her senior season, but they’ll need to make up for the graduation of five of last year’s starters, including goalkeeper Kaylee Johnson.
GC-GR was scheduled to host Dike-New Hartford to begin their season on Monday, but it was postponed due to weather. Eight starters from last year’s 7-9 team are back, including goal leader Alex Yoder. The Falcons won last year’s meeting 7-0.
The girls game will air on 99 The Wave with pregame coverage beginning at 4:50 p.m., followed by the kickoff at 5:00.
