Soccer Game Preview: San Marcos vs. Ventura

San Marcos and Ventura are an even 4-4-2 against one another since January of 2017, but likely not for long. The San Marcos Royals will be playing at home against the Ventura Cougars at 6:45 p.m. on Monday. San Marcos' offense has struggled lately (the team hasn't scored more than a single goal for three straight games), a trend the team is no doubt ready to end.

San Marcos' defense heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Saturday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 1-0 win over Rio Mesa. Given the Royals' advantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 256th, while the Spartans are ranked 710th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Ventura was not able to break out of their rough patch on Thursday as the team picked up their third straight loss. They were a single goal away from ending the streak, but they lost a 1-0 heartbreaker at the hands of Oxnard.

Ventura's defeat dropped their record down to 5-8-3. As for San Marcos, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-4-3 record this season.

San Marcos beat Ventura by a goal in their previous meeting on January 7th, winning 2-1. Will San Marcos repeat their success, or does Ventura have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.