Soccer Game Preview: Charleston vs. Salem

The Charleston Trojans will take on the Salem Wildcats in a tournament on Friday. Charleston's offense has struggled lately (the team hasn't scored more than a single goal for six straight games), a trend the team is no doubt ready to end.

Charleston managed to keep up with Mattoon until halftime on Tuesday, but things quickly went downhill from there. The Trojans came up short against the Greenwave, falling 5-0.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Salem). Everything went their way against East Alton-Wood River on Thursday as they made off with a 6-3 victory. The matchup was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 6-1.

Salem's win was their first in the conference, bumping their conference record up to 1-2 and their overall record up to 3-7. As for Charleston, their loss dropped their record down to 1-6.

Everything went Charleston's way against Salem in their previous meeting back in April of 2024, as Charleston made off with a 6-0 victory. Will the Trojans repeat their success, or do the Wildcats have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.