Soccer Game Preview: Vista vs. San Dieguito Academy

The Vista Panthers are taking a road trip to challenge the San Dieguito Academy Mustangs at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Vista's offense has struggled lately (the team hasn't scored more than a single goal for five straight games), a trend the team is no doubt ready to end.

It was a proper cat-fight when Vista duked it out withEl Camino on Wednesday. Vista came up short against El Camino, falling 5-0. 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 929th, while the Wildcats are ranked 312th).

Meanwhile, San Dieguito Academy had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 3.2 goals) and they went ahead and made it seven on Wednesday. Their defense stepped up to hand the Pirates a 1-0 shutout. Give the Mustangs' defense some credit: that's the team's third straight shutout.

San Dieguito Academy pushed their record up to 11-3 with the victory, which was their fifth straight on the road. As for Vista, their loss was their first in the league, dropping their league record down to 1-1-1 and their overall record down to 1-8-3.

Vista suffered a grim 10-2 defeat to San Dieguito Academy when the teams last played back in February of 2024. That matchup was all but decided by halftime, at which point Vista was down 4-1.