Soccer Game Preview: Lake Minneola vs. Gateway

The Lake Minneola Hawks are taking a road trip to square off against the Gateway Panthers at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Lake Minneola's defense heads into the game hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. They put the hurt on South Sumter with a sharp 8-0 win. The high-flying offensive performance was a huge turnaround for the Hawks considering their one-goal performance the match before.

Their offense was hitting South Sumter from everywhere, as six different players booted in a goal. Lucas Barbosa led that balanced group of strikers and accounted for two goals all by himself.

Meanwhile, Gateway got the win against Poinciana on Wednesday by a conclusive 5-0. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida soccer rankings (they are ranked 53rd, while the Eagles are ranked 395th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Lake Minneola now has a winning record of 4-3-3. As for Gateway, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 14-1.

Lake Minneola suffered a grim 6-1 defeat to Gateway in their previous matchup back in November of 2023. Can Lake Minneola avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.