By all accounts, the 2018 season was a down year for the Perry High School boys soccer team. However, that didn’t stop the Blue Jays from pulling off an upset in Harlan last Saturday, and advancing to their fourth Class 2A State Soccer Tournament in five years.

Perry enters the tournament with an 11-10 record, which includes four-straight wins to close the regular season, the last of which was a 3-1 victory over Harlan in the sub-state finals. Their reward is the 8th seed in the tournament and a first round rematch with top-seeded Pella on Thursday. The Dutch also happen to be the team who gave the Blue Jays their last loss of the season, as Perry fell 4-1 on May 17th in Pella. If they win their first match, Perry will be guaranteed two more games in the tournament. Their next game would be the semifinals against the winner of the match between 2017 2A runner-up, Cedar Rapids-Xavier and fellow Dallas County representatives, Dallas Center-Grimes. DCG also advanced to the State Tournament Saturday after upending host Adel-DeSoto-Minburn.

Perry will play Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at the James C. Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines on Field #9. Listen to full play-by-play coverage of the match on FM 99.7, AM 1310 KDLS, with pregame starting at 2. Perry finished 4th in the 2017 State Tournament, and are one of only four teams from that field to return this year.