Irvine Valley ran into a hot team and the top team in the Orange Empire Conference on Friday at home.
Golden West, which had won six of its last seven matches, made it seven of eight with a 4-0 victory over Irvine Valley.
The Rustlers were ranked No. 9 in the state and No. 5 in Southern California in this week's CCCAA polls.
The win improved Golden West's record to 8-2-2 overall and 5-1-0 in conference.
Irvine Valley, which was coming off a 4-1 victory at Santiago Canyon on Tuesday, saw its record slip to 3-7-3 overall and 2-4-0 in conference play.
The only difference in a tightly played first half was a goal for Golden West off a penalty kick in the 18th minute.
Adonis Robles was taken down in the box and Moacyf Guadarrama converted the penalty kick to the lower left corner for a 1-0 lead.
It was all Golden West in the second half.
The Rustlers got goals from Alex Velazquez, Nathan DaRosa and William Munoz during a 15-minute span midway through the second half.
Irvine Valley tried to make a push late. Freshman forward Sean Goode got in behind the defense, but couldn't get a solid foot on a shot. Goode also took a chance on a free kick from outside the box, but it was deflected to Golden West's keeper.
Golden West used three different goalies in the match and Kevin Caberera and Raul Boiso each made one save.
Irvine Valley goalie Jeremy Parsons, who was making his second straight start, had four saves in goal for IVC.
Irvine Valley will try and get back on track next Tuesday when it travels to Santa Ana for a 3 p.m. match.
