Soccer Game Preview: Central vs. Calexico

Central is 2-8 against Calexico since May of 2021 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Central Spartans will look to defend their home pitch against the Calexico Bulldogs at 6:00 p.m. Central is coming into the contest hot, having won their last four games.

On Tuesday, it was close, but Central sidestepped Brawley for a 3-2 victory. Given the Spartans' advantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 53rd, while the Wildcats are ranked 343rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Joseph Rosas and Mishel Villanueva scored all three of Central's goals, bringing their combined season tally to 41 goals.

Meanwhile, Calexico kept a clean sheet against Southwest EC on Tuesday. Everything went their way against the Eagles as they made off with a 4-0 win. The high-flying offensive performance was a huge turnaround for the Bulldogs considering their one-goal performance the matchup before.

Calexico is also on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-3-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 24 goals over those nine contests. As for Central, their victory bumped their record up to 16-1-2.

Central skirted past Calexico 1-0 in their previous meeting back in February of 2024. Does Central have another victory up their sleeve, or will Calexico turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.