Soccer Game Preview: Poly vs. Valley View

The Poly Bears will face off against the Valley View Eagles at 5:00 p.m. on Monday. Poly's last seven games have been decided by no more than a goal, so don't be surprised if it's a close one.

On Thursday, Poly sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-2 victory over Paloma Valley. Given the Bears' advantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 143rd, while the Wildcats are ranked 514th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Eric Barbarin and Adrian Navarro scored all three of Poly's goals, bringing their combined season tally to 13 goals.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Valley View). Their defense stepped up to hand Hemet a 7-0 shutout on Thursday. The high-scoring effort was just what the Eagles needed considering they were shutout in their previous contest.

Valley View has also been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 9-7-1 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 22 goals over those seven games. As for Poly, their win bumped their record up to 11-4-3.