Soccer Game Preview: Paraclete vs. St. Paul

The Paraclete Spirits will venture away from home to square off against the St. Paul Swordsmen at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Paraclete's offense has struggled lately (the team hasn't scored more than a single goal for four straight games), a trend the team is no doubt ready to end.

Wednesday just wasn't the day for Paraclete's offense. They lost 7-0 to Bishop Montgomery on Wednesday. While losing is never fun, the Spirits can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 844th, while the Knights are ranked 259th).

Meanwhile, St. Paul gave up the first goal on Wednesday, but they didn't let that get them down. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 2-1 victory over Verbum Dei Jesuit. That's two games straight that the Swordsmen have won by just one goal.

St. Paul has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 9-8-1 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 16 goals over those six contests. As for Paraclete, their loss dropped their record down to 2-4-1.

Paraclete came up short against St. Paul in their previous meeting last Monday, falling 2-0. Can Paraclete avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.