Soccer Game Preview: Albany vs. Saint Mary's

The Albany Cougars will challenge the Saint Mary's Panthers at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Albany is currently enjoying a perfect season and no doubt wants to keep things rolling.

Albany proved they can win big on Thursday (they won by three) and on Tuesday they proved they can win the close ones too. They beat Richmond by a goal, winning 3-2. Keyland Lobato-Maloney had to tread lightly for part of the match after he was hit with a yellow card, but that was the only trouble Albany got from the refs.

Lobato-Maloney and Adrian Mandizvidza scored all three of Albany's goals, bringing their combined season tally to five goals.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Saint Mary's). Their defense stepped up to hand Salesian College Preparatory a 3-0 shutout on Tuesday. The score was close at halftime, but Saint Mary's pulled away in the second half with two goals.

Saint Mary's victory bumped their record up to 5-2-4. As for Albany, their win bumped their record up to 8-0-1.

Albany skirted past Saint Mary's 2-1 in their previous matchup two weeks ago. Will the Cougars repeat their success, or do the Panthers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.