Soccer Game Preview: DeRidder vs. Leesville

The DeRidder Dragons will take on the Leesville Wampus Cats at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Leesville took a loss in their last matchup and will be looking to turn the tables on DeRidder, who comes in off a win.

DeRidder will bounce into Thursday's contest after beating Holy Savior Menard, who they had gone 0-5 against in their five prior meetings. DeRidder rang in the new year with a 3-1 victory over Holy Savior Menard on Monday.

Meanwhile, Leesville fell victim to Pineville and their airtight defense on Tuesday. They took a 2-0 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Rebels. While losing is never fun, the Wampus Cats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Louisiana soccer rankings (they are ranked 105th, while the Rebels are ranked 23rd).

DeRidder is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 10-8-1 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 58 goals over those nine matchups. As for Leesville, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 4-11.