Soccer Game Preview: Gardena vs. Banning

The Gardena Panthers will face off against the Banning Pilots at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Gardena will head out to face Banning after giving up their first home loss of the season on Friday. Gardena came up short against San Pedro, falling 7-0. Having soared to a lofty five goals in the game before, the Panthers' shutout was a dramatic turnaround.

Meanwhile, Banning entered their tilt with Narbonne on Friday with four consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with five. They put the hurt on the Gauchos with a sharp 8-1 victory. The result was nothing new for the Pilots, who have now won seven matchups by three goals or more so far this season.

Their offense was hitting Narbonne from everywhere, as five different players booted in a goal. Melanie Ayala led that balanced group of strikers and accounted for four goals all by herself.

Banning is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 13-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 41 goals over those eight games. As for Gardena, their loss was their first of the season and makes their record 7-1-1.

Gardena came out on top in a nail-biter against Banning when the teams last played back in January of 2024, sneaking past 3-2. Does Gardena have another victory up their sleeve, or will Banning turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.