Soccer Preview: Western Branch vs. Hickory
The Western Branch Bruins will look to defend their home pitch on Thursday against the Hickory Hawks at 7:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Western Branch took a loss when they played away from home on Thursday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Tuesday. Their defense stepped up to hand King's Fork a 10-0 shutout. The high-scoring effort was just what Western Branch needed considering they were shutout in their previous match.
Meanwhile, Hickory has not lost a match yet, a trend which continued in their latest game on Tuesday. They blew past Lakeland 3-0. Given Hickory's advantage in MaxPreps' Virginia soccer rankings (they are ranked tenth, while Lakeland is ranked 211th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Hickory hit Lakeland with a three-pronged attack, as the team got scores from
Charlotte Petchel,
Abby Ostasiewski, and
Audrey Rooney.
Western Branch pushed their record up to 9-2 with that win, which was their fourth straight at home. As for Hickory, their victory bumped their record up to 10-0-1.
Western Branch was able to grind out a solid win over Hickory in their previous matchup back in April of 2023, winning 2-0. Does Western Branch have another victory up their sleeve, or will Hickory turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
