Soccer Game Preview: Grand Oaks vs. MacArthur

The Grand Oaks Grizzlies will venture away from home to square off against the MacArthur Generals at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Grand Oaks had to skate by with only a one-goal margin when they last took the pitch, which might have inspired the six-goal drubbing they dealt Caney Creek on Monday. Grand Oaks never let Caney Creek get on the board and left with a 6-0 win. Given the Grizzlies' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas soccer rankings (they are ranked 165th, while the Panthers are ranked 514th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Grand Oaks' offense was hitting Caney Creek from everywhere, as five different players booted in a goal. Johanna Diaz led that balanced group of strikers and accounted for two goals all by herself.

Meanwhile, MacArthur came tearing into last Monday's game with ten straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 6.7 goals), and they left with even more momentum. Everything went their way against the Falcons as they made off with a 13-0 victory.

Grand Oaks is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 12-7-2 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only given up two goals over those five matches. MacArthur's win was their seventh straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 15-4-2.