Soccer Game Preview: Houston vs. Soldotna

Houston hasn't had much luck against Soldotna recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Hawks will challenge the Stars at 7:00 p.m.

Houston is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Alaska's top teams: Homer, who was ranked 17th at the time (Houston was ranked 18th). The Hawks came up short against the Mariners on Thursday, falling 4-0. Having soared to a lofty nine goals in the game before, Houston's shutout was a dramatic turnaround.

Meanwhile, Soldotna had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 6 goals) and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They never let the Kardinals get on the board and left with a 2-0 win. The score was all tied up 0-0 at the break, but Soldotna were the better team in the second half.

Willets Simon and Lane Hillyer scored both of Soldotna's goals, bringing their combined season tally to 27 goals.

Houston's loss dropped their record down to 5-9-3. As for Soldotna, their victory bumped their record up to 12-4-1.

Houston suffered a grim 11-0 defeat to Soldotna when the teams last played on Saturday. Can the Hawks avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.