Soccer Game Preview: Ventura vs. Oxnard

Ventura is 1-8-1 against Oxnard since April of 2021 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Ventura Cougars will take on the Oxnard Yellowjackets at 5:00 p.m. Neither team made it on the board the last time they hit the pitch, so they've probably got a bit of extra motivation.

On Tuesday, Ventura didn't have quite enough to beat Dos Pueblos and fell 2-1. While losing is never fun, the Cougars can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 365th, while the Chargers are ranked 176th).

Meanwhile, Oxnard waltzed into their game on Tuesday with four straight wins... but they left with five. They never let the Dons onto the board and left with a 1-0 win. That's two games straight that the Yellowjackets have won by just one goal.

Oxnard has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a massive bump to their 11-4-3 record this season. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only given up three goals over those seven contests. As for Ventura, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 7-9-2.

Ventura suffered a grim 3-0 defeat to Oxnard in their previous matchup back in December of 2024. Can Ventura avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.