Soccer Game Preview: Sunny Hills vs. Sonora

The Sunny Hills Lancers will venture away from home to challenge the Sonora Raiders at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Sunny Hills will roll into the contest after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up one goal last Thursday, then bounced right back against El Modena on Tuesday. Sunny Hills' defense stepped up to hand El Modena a 5-0 shutout. The Lancers' defense has been rock solid lately; the team hasn't given up a goal in their last six matchups.

Meanwhile, Sonora's and El Modena's game on Thursday was close at halftime, but Sonora turned on the heat in the second half with four goals. Sonora put the hurt on El Modena with a sharp 5-1 win. Given the Raiders' advantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 38th, while the Vanguards are ranked 757th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Sonora has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine contests, which provided a nice bump to their 13-2-2 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 27 goals over those nine matches. As for Sunny Hills, their victory bumped their record up to 13-4-2.

Sunny Hills beat Sonora by a goal when the teams last played back in January of 2024, winning 2-1. The rematch might be a little tougher for Sunny Hills since the team won't have the home-pitch advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.