Soccer Game Preview: Hawthorne vs. Santa Monica

The Hawthorne Cougars will head out to face off against the Santa Monica Vikings at 1:30 p.m. on Monday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Hawthorne has struggled recently with four losses in a row, while Santa Monica will arrive with four straight victories.

Thursday just wasn't the day for Hawthorne's offense. They came up short against Beverly Hills on Thursday, falling 7-0.

Hawthorne was without their leading scorer, Sebastine Lara, in Thursday's contest. With Lara sidelined, Angel Roman got his first action of the season.

Meanwhile, Santa Monica kept a clean sheet against Beverly Hills on Friday. They blew past the Normans 3-0. Considering the Vikings have won eight games by more than two goals this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.

They hit Beverly Hills with a three-pronged attack, as the team got scores from Orlando Popkin, Nicholas Youssef, and Khaelan Zeitlin.

Santa Monica pushed their record up to 14-2-1 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home. Those victories came thanks to their defensive effort, having only given up zero goals over those five matchups. As for Hawthorne, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-11-1.

Hawthorne suffered a grim 9-0 defeat to Santa Monica when the teams last played back in January of 2020. Can Hawthorne avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.