Sugar River has its place in the WIAA Division 3 boys soccer tournament, and the No. 5-seeded Raiders will not have to look far for their first opponent. The Belleville-New Glarus cooperative will host No. 12 Monroe on Thursday, Oct. 22, in a regional semifinal.

The pairing creates an immediate Highway 69 showdown between two Green County programs that already know each other well. Sugar River and Monroe played to a 1-1 draw Sept. 3 in New Glarus, but the score did not tell the whole story: the Raiders generated 27 shots on goal to Monroe’s 10 and controlled much of the match without finding a second goal.

That makes this a 5-vs.-12 matchup that looks much less comfortable when viewed beyond the seed numbers. It also places Sugar River in a loaded Sectional 3. If the higher seeds advance, the Raiders’ route would run through No. 4 Stoughton in a regional final and No. 1 Edgewood in a sectional semifinal. No. 2 McFarland and No. 3 Edgerton sit on the other half of the sectional.

There is another wrinkle to the bracket release: Division 3 is not yet complete statewide. Sectional 1 remained blank in the latest WIAA bracket posted this weekend. The other three sectional No. 1 seeds currently shown are Freedom in Sectional 2, Edgewood in Sectional 3 and Shorewood in Sectional 4. Bound Wisconsin reported that the remaining brackets and sectionals would be released in the coming days.