Soccer Game Preview: Center vs. Mira Loma

The Center Cougars and the Mira Loma Matadors will compete for holiday cheer at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Center is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 2.8 goals per game this season.

If Mira Loma heads into halftime all tied up, they better play a good second half: that's when Center took over last week. Center came out on top in a nail-biter against Wheatland on Tuesday, sneaking past 3-2. Given the Cougars' advantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 142nd, while the Pirates are ranked 707th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Asmatullah Rahimi and Bahram Babak scored all three of Center's goals, bringing their combined season tally to ten goals.

Meanwhile, after a string of four wins, Mira Loma's good fortune finally ran out on Friday. They fell just short of Vanden by a score of 2-1. Having soared to a lofty six goals in the game before, the Matadors couldn't push the score so high this time.

Mira Loma's defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 4-2. As for Center, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 5-1-1.

Everything went Center's way against Mira Loma in their previous matchup back in April of 2021, as Center made off with a 6-3 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Center since the squad won't have the home-pitch advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.