Soccer Game Preview: Patterson vs. Central Catholic

The Patterson Tigers will challenge the Central Catholic Raiders at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Patterson has six straight victories, Central Catholic has nine straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the pitch.

On Tuesday, Patterson beat East Union 3-1. Given the Tigers' advantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 74th, while the Lancers are ranked 262nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Andrew Diaz and Jose Fajardo scored all three of Patterson's goals, bringing their combined season tally to 17 goals.

Meanwhile, Tuesday just wasn't the day for Central Catholic's offense. They lost 5-0 to Sierra on Tuesday. The shutout was out of character for the Raiders seeing as the last time the team failed to score was back in December of 2024.

Patterson is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine contests, which provided a nice bump to their 10-0-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their defensive effort, having only given up four goals over those nine games. As for Central Catholic, their loss dropped their record down to 2-11.

Everything went Patterson's way against Central Catholic in their previous meeting back in December of 2024, as Patterson made off with an 8-1 win. Will Patterson repeat their success, or does Central Catholic have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.