Soccer Preview: Hickory vs. Statesville
Hickory is 6-0 against Statesville since February of 2017, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Tuesday. The Hickory Red Tornadoes will look to defend their home pitch against the Statesville Greyhounds at 6:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Hickory has four straight victories, Statesville has five straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
The matchup between Hickory and East Lincoln last Thursday hardly resembled the 2-0 effort from their previous meeting. Hickory walked away with a 5-3 win over East Lincoln. Five seems to be a good number for Hickory as the squad scooped up a victory with the same number of goals in their previous game.
They hit East Lincoln with a three-pronged attack, as the team got scores from
Piper Jillings (2),
Mia Zulueta (2), and
Ella Kate Stewart.
Meanwhile, Thursday just wasn't the day for Statesville's offense. Their rough 9-0 defeat to St. Stephens last Thursday might stick with them for a while. While losing is never fun, Statesville can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina soccer rankings (they are ranked 437th, while St. Stephens is ranked 143rd).
Hickory has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a massive bump to their 8-3-1 record this season. As for Statesville, their loss dropped their record down to 0-5.
Hickory took their win against Statesville in their previous matchup back in May of 2023 by a conclusive 9-0. Does Hickory have another victory up their sleeve, or will Statesville turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
