Soccer Game Preview: Peninsula vs. North

The Peninsula Panthers will face off against the North Saxons at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Neither team made it on the board the last time they hit the pitch, so they've probably got a bit of extra motivation.

Peninsula fell victim to Saint Joseph and their airtight defense on Saturday. They fell just short of the Jesters by a score of 1-0. While losing is never fun, the Panthers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 207th, while the Jesters are ranked 63rd).

Peninsula was without their leading scorer, Allie Chang, in Saturday's matchup. With Chang sidelined, Peninsula had to make some changes to the lineup. Surina Massey played for 70 minutes having averaged 40 this season and Madeleine Chang got 70 vs. an average of 44.4.

Meanwhile, North managed to keep up with Torrance until halftime two weeks ago, but things quickly went downhill from there. North might have been a little too into the holiday spirit, gifting Torrance an easy 4-1 victory. The Saxons haven't had much luck with the Tartars recently, as the team's come up short the last seven times they've met.

North's loss dropped their record down to 4-3-1. As for Peninsula, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-5-2.

Peninsula was able to grind out a solid win over North in their previous matchup back in March of 2021, winning 2-0. Does Peninsula have another victory up their sleeve, or will North turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.