The top 2 ranked teams in Class 3A Football will come together for the gridiron season opener in Grimes, as the #1 ranked, Pella Little Dutch travel to face the #2 ranked, DC-G Mustangs in Week 1 action on August 28.

The game, over 4 months out, is receiving exceptional hype because both Little Hawkeye Conference teams are thought to be two of the teams to count on to get to the UNIDome in November.

Dallas Center-Grimes is coming off of a 9-2 season, which saw a second round playoff exit at Lewis Central in 2019.  Scott Heitland’s program saw one of the biggest turnarounds last year, as the Mustangs went just 1-8 in 2018.

DC-G will also have another top 5 match-up on the schedule, as they’ll get a rematch with Council Bluffs Lewis Central and head back that way, the following week after playing host to top ranked Pella.

Though Heitland and his team are looking forward to the challenging first two weeks of the regular season, winning, at least, one of those games is key because fighting from an 0-2 start would leave little margin for error for the remainder of the season.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette released their Class 3A Preseason Rankings shown below.

1. Pella 2. Dallas Center-Grimes 3. Grinnell 4. Cedar Rapids Xavier 5. Lewis Central 6. Harlan 7. North Scott 8. Western Dubuque T-9. Sergeant Bluff-Luton T-9. West Delaware.