Wisconsin Soccer Central

Sometimes it's difficult to understand how sports polls work. Take, for example, the case of the Milwaukee Marquette boys soccer team.

The Hilltoppers remained unbeaten and cruised past Brookfield Central 4-0 in their lone match last week, but dropped eight spots to No. 15 in this week's National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll.

Middleton (7-1-1 at the time of voting) and Green Bay Preble (8-1-3), which are second and third behind Marquette (6-0-2) in the Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association Division 1 rankings, received votes in the national poll for the second straight week.

In the Region VI rankings, the Hilltoppers fell one place to No. 2, while Middleton moved up two spots to fourth, Preble dropped one place to No. 5, Kenosha Bradford (9-0-0) remained seventh and Kimberly (11-0-0) rose one spot to eighth.

• There are two big matches in Madison-area conferences Friday night. In the Big Eight, second-ranked Middleton (8-1-1, 4-0-0) plays host to No. 7 Madison West (10-0-0, 4-0-0) at 7 p.m. at Firefighters Memorial Park in a game that was postponed by storms last week. At the same time in Fort Atkinson, three-time defending Southern Badger champion Oregon (6-1-1, 2-0-0) puts its 22-game conference winning streak on the line against the host Blackhawks (10-1-0, 3-0-0) – both teams also still have to play Madison Edgewood (7-2-0, 3-0-0).