Pella hits the road to Newton tonight to battle the Cardinals in a class 4A district football matchup.

The Dutch are 3-2, coming off back-to-back impressive victories over Xavier and Carlisle, while Newton is 2-3. Pella coach Jay McKinstrey says that many fans might have the wrong impression about tonight’s opponent.

“When you get in the mindset and go back ten or eleven years, they had some years where they weren’t very good. But I’ll tell you what, they’re not only on the upswing, they’re a very good football team. Last year their schedule wasn’t very good coming into our matchup as they had played four not very good football teams. This year, they’ve played ADM, Bondurant, and they may be better than they were last year even though their record may not show it. They’ve got some really good athletes.”

Opening kick is at 7:30 at H.A. Lynn Stadium in Newton. Trevor Castle and Randy Sikkema will call the action live on the KRLS2 stream beginning with pregame at 6:30.