Soccer Game Preview: San Marcos vs. Ventura

The San Marcos Royals will head out to face off against the Ventura Cougars at 5:00 p.m. on Monday. San Marcos will be strutting in after a win while Ventura will be coming in after a defeat.

If Ventura heads into halftime all tied up, they better play a good second half: that's when San Marcos took over last week. San Marcos' defense stepped up to hand Rio Mesa a 3-0 shutout on Saturday. Given the Royals' advantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 108th, while the Spartans are ranked 365th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

San Marcos hit Rio Mesa with a three-pronged attack, as the team got scores from Fernando Lara, Jose Ramirez, and Luis Campos.

Meanwhile, while it was all tied up 0-0 at halftime, Ventura was not quite Oxnard's equal in the second half on Friday. They fell just short of the Yellowjackets by a score of 1-0. The loss continues a trend for the Cougars in their matchups with the Yellowjackets: they've now lost seven in a row.

Ventura's defeat dropped their record down to 7-10-2. As for San Marcos, their victory bumped their record up to 9-5-3.

San Marcos beat Ventura by a goal in their previous matchup on January 7th, winning 1-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for San Marcos since the squad won't have the home-pitch advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.