Irvine Valley's men's soccer team is hoping to have another strong run in the California Community College Athletic Association Southern California Regional Playoffs.
The Lasers, who earned the No. 4 seed, open the playoffs with a home game against No. 13 Victor Valley on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Irvine Valley reached the regional final last year before falling to Mt. SAC.
The Lasers have put together a strong season so far.
Irvine Valley finished second in the tough Orange Empire Conference with a record of 9-2-3. Four teams from the conference made the 15-team Southern California Regional field.
Irvine Valley, which has a record of 14-4-3 overall, was ranked ninth in the state in the final regular season poll.
The Lasers finished the regular season with a 6-1 win over Norco at home on Nov. 10.
It was the second time IVC had scored six goals in a game this year.
Irvine Valley has out-scored its opponents, 56-26, on the year.
And four players scored at least nine goals with sophomore forward Sean Goode leading the way with 17 goals. He finished second in the conference in both goals and points. Goode also had games with three goals or more this season.
Sophomore midfielder Jose Rivera and sophomore forward Connor Elder each scored 11 goals. Rivera also had 12 assists, which led the conference and was sixth in the state.
Freshman forward Daniel Segal ended the regular season with nine goals for IVC.
Rivera along with sophomores Albert Chavez and Jose Gamboa and freshman Mitchell Findlay-McKenzie give the Lasers one of the top midfields around.
Sophomores Joseph Ferguson, Taylor Davidson and Scott Clark along with freshman Alfonso Quezada-Osorno have provided solid play in the back.
Freshman goalie Blake Sigler has just a 1.13 goals against average and has made nine saves. He has five shutouts.
Irvine Valley will be taking on a Victor Valley team that won the Western State Conference South Division.
The Rams have a record of 12-6-4 overall and were 6-1-3 in conference.
Victor Valley came back from two goals down to earn a 2-2 tie with Glendale last week to secure the conference title.
The Rams are 6-1-3 in their last 10 matches.
Victor Valley has scored 49 goals on the season and has given up 37.
Josh Goodman leads them in scoring with 13 goals and seven assists for 33 points.
Jeremy Holguin has five goals and five assists, Miguel Zarate has five goals and two assists and Jesus Rios has contributed three goals and four assists.
Arron Herrera has done most of the work in goal and has a 1.73 goals against average with 73 saves.
The winner of Saturday's match-up will face the winner of No. 5 Rio Hondo and No. 12 LA Mission next Tuesday in the second round.
