While this is true from the rankings app perspective. City SC would be higher if they had more local games against highly ranked clubs. When you consistently play highly ranked teams you get in a rhythm + understanding about what it takes to play at that level. City only gets to play big GA clubs like Tophat 2x a year. Other than that they play local clubs who aren't ranked as highly.(City GA would be ranked 10 ahead of Pats fwiw)
Options to get around this are friendlies or playing against boys teams. But that involves time and effort. FWIW City does play friendlies against Socal ECNL clubs and tends to do fairly well but these aren't recorded in the ranking app + parents don't discuss very much because both groups like the games and want them to continue.