Soccer Game Preview: Lakeland vs. Gloucester

The Lakeland Cavaliers will head out on the road to take on the Gloucester Dukes at 6:30 p.m. on Monday. Lakeland's offense has struggled lately (the team hasn't scored more than a single goal for ten straight games), a trend the team is no doubt ready to end.

Lakeland came into their game on Friday off a hard-fought close win, but unfortunately suffered a serious change of fortune. They came up short against Grassfield, falling 3-0. While losing is never fun, Lakeland can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Virginia soccer rankings (they are ranked 256th, while Grassfield are ranked 16th).

Meanwhile, Gloucester came tearing into Friday's match with five straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 5.4 goals), and they left with even more momentum. Their defense stepped up to hand the Hurricanes an 8-0 shutout. Considering Gloucester have won 11 contests by more than two goals this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.

Gloucester's victory was their sixth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 11-4. The road wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 38 goals over those six games. As for Lakeland, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-9-1.