The West Bladen Knights will face off against the Lumberton Pirates at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as West Bladen comes in on six and Lumberton on four.
While West Bladen didn't have the best season last year (they finished 5-16), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past. They had just enough and edged South Columbus out 3-2. Given the Knights' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina soccer rankings (they are ranked 245th, while the Stallions are ranked 537th), the result last Tuesday wasn't entirely unexpected.
West Bladen hit South Columbus with a three-pronged attack, as the team got scores from
Jonah Bryan,
Kevin Rojas-Rojas, and
Christopher Ramirez Labra.
Meanwhile, Lumberton kept a clean sheet against Seventy-First on Wednesday. They put the hurt on the Falcons with a sharp 8-0 victory. Give the Pirates' defense some credit: that's the team's fourth straight shutout.
West Bladen's win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 6-1. As for Lumberton, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a massive bump to their 6-4-1 record this season.
West Bladen might still be hurting after the 6-1 defeat they got from Lumberton in their previous meeting back in September of 2023. That contest was all but decided by halftime, at which point West Bladen was down 4-0.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
