Soccer Game Preview: Columbia vs. Orange Park

The Columbia Tigers will face off against the Orange Park Raiders at 7:50 p.m. on Thursday. Columbia is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 3.8 goals per game this season.

Columbia's defense heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Wednesday. They came out on top against Suwannee by a score of 2-0. Given the Tigers' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida soccer rankings (they are ranked 171st, while the Bulldogs are ranked 357th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Laelle Thompson and Niki Sossie scored both of Columbia's goals, bringing their combined season tally to 20 goals.

Meanwhile, Orange Park had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 4 goals) and they went ahead and made it three on Tuesday. Everything went their way against the Broncos as they made off with a 4-1 win. The result was nothing new for the Raiders, who have now won six games by three goals or more so far this season.

Columbia's victory bumped their record up to 10-2-1. As for Orange Park, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 8-2-1 record this season.

Columbia took their win against Orange Park in their previous meeting back in October of 2015 by a conclusive 7-0. Does Columbia have another victory up their sleeve, or will Orange Park turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.