Soccer Game Preview: South El Monte vs. Nogales

South El Monte hasn't had much luck against Nogales recently, but that could start to change on Monday. The South El Monte Eagles will be playing in front of their home fans against the Nogales Nobles at 4:00 p.m. South El Monte is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 3.4 goals per game this season.

South El Monte took a loss when they played away from home last Thursday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. They never let Santa Fe onto the board and left with a 5-0 victory. Considering the Eagles have won five matchups by more than two goals this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.

Fabricio Ocampo and Neri Alvarado scored all five of South El Monte's goals, bringing their combined season tally to 23 goals.

Meanwhile, Nogales had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 9.7 goals) and they went ahead and made it four last Thursday. They walked away with a 2-0 win over the Dons. Given the Nobles' advantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 149th, while the Dons are ranked 383rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Nogales' victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 6-1-1. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 31 goals over those three games. As for South El Monte, their win bumped their record up to 8-4-2.