The Novato Hornets will venture away from home to challenge the Branson Bulls at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday. Novato's offense has struggled lately (the team hasn't scored more than a single goal for five straight games), a trend the team is no doubt ready to end.
Novato is likely headed into the match with a focus on the second half, which is when things went downhill against Archie Williams on Tuesday. The Hornets fell just short of the Peregrine Falcons by a score of 1-0. While losing is never fun, Novato can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 1087th, while Archie Williams are ranked 116th).
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Branson). They were the clear victors by a 4-0 margin over Marin Catholic on Tuesday. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest victory of the season.
The win made it two in a row for Branson and bumps their season record up to 5-4-2. The victories came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only given up zero goals over those two contests. As for Novato, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-6-1.
Novato skirted past Branson 1-0 in their previous matchup back in January of 2025. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Hornets since the team 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
