The Portola Bulldogs are taking a road trip to face off against the St. Margaret's Tartans at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Portola has five straight wins, St. Margaret's has five straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the pitch.
St. Margaret's better have a healthy lead at halftime, because if last week is any indication, that's when Portola really get things going. Portola's defense stepped up to hand Irvine a 4-0 shutout on Friday. The Bulldogs' defense has been rock solid lately; the team hasn't given up a goal in their last five games.
Meanwhile, while it was all tied up 0-0 at halftime, St. Margaret's was not quite Sage Hill's equal in the second half on Friday. They fell 2-0 to the Lightning. While losing is never fun, the Tartans can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 871st, while the Lightning are ranked 236th).
Portola pushed their record up to 6-1-2 with the victory, which was their fourth straight at home. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 15 goals over those four matchups. As for St. Margaret's, their loss dropped their record down to 2-12.
Portola took their win against St. Margaret's in their previous matchup two weeks ago by a conclusive 6-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Portola since the squad won't have the home-pitch advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
