Waterman, Rivera lead men's soccer team to another win

Courtesy of Elizabeth Elder
Courtesy of Elizabeth Elder

Irvine Valley's men's soccer team finished the first round of Orange Empire Conference play with another win.

Freshman midfielder Jose Rivera and freshman forward Toby Waterman combined on a pair of goals to lift the Lasers to a 2-1 victory at Cypress on Tuesday afternoon.

The win kept IVC unbeaten in conference play. Irvine Valley's record improved to 8-2-4 overall and 5-0-2 in conference.

Irvine Valley leads Golden West by a match in the standings after the first round of conference action. Golden West defeated Santa Ana, 2-0, Tuesday afternoon.

On Tuesday at Cypress, the Lasers took an early 1-0 lead when Rivera found the back of the net thanks to a Waterman assist in the 21st minute.

Cypress was able to tie the game before halftime when Dragan Maksimovic found Arturo Olivo, who booted a close range shot past Irvine Valley freshman keeper Manuel Zamora.

The lone goal of the second half was the difference and that came off the foot of Waterman.

He found himself on the receiving end of a Jose Rivera cross and finished to put IVC up, 2-1, in the 77th minute.

Cypress was unable to come up with an equalizer and the Lasers escaped with a victory.

Waterman scored his team-high and conference-leading 11th goal of the season. He also has a team and conference-high 27 points after the goal and assist.

With his goal and assist, Rivera took his point total to 20 on nine goals and two assists. Rivera is tied for second in the conference in goals and third in points.

Zamora finished with six saves in goal on the day for Irvine Valley. He lowered his goals against average to 1.39 per game.

The Lasers are back home on Friday, starting the second round of conference play against Norco at 3 p.m.