Men's soccer team caps big week with 3-1 win over Santa Ana

It was quite a week for the Irvine Valley men's soccer team.

The Lasers scored two wins, including a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over rival Santa Ana on Friday at home, to move up in the Orange Empire Conference standings and keep its hopes alive for the postseason.

Irvine Valley improved its record to 8-6-7 overall and 4-4-3 in conference. The Lasers moved into a tie with Santa Ana (10-5-3, 4-3-3) for fourth place in the standings and sit just behind Orange Coast for third.

The Lasers started the week with a 3-1 win at Santiago Canyon on Tuesday. IVC received two goals from sophomore forward Benjamin Asabi and one score from freshman midfielder Dowan Kim. Kim scored the match-winning goal in the 68^th minute.

Then on Friday, IVC rallied to earn one of its biggest victories of the season.

The Lasers trailed, 1-0, at the half before scoring three goals, including two in an eight-minute span to knock off Santa Ana.

The Dons took a 1-0 lead in the 31^st minute on a bending shot into the upper left corner of the goal on a free kick by Marcelo Aguirre.

But IVC came out ready in the second half.

The Lasers scored goals in the 54^th and 62^nd minutes off corner kicks to take the lead.

Both goals came off corners by Kim from the left side. The first corner found its way through the Santa Ana defense and freshman Mehrbod Aflatouni was able to hit the ball into the back of the net. It was the first goal of the season for Aflatouni, who started the season as a back-up goalie for the Lasers.

Then eight minutes later, freshman forward Max Kleinhammes was able to head in a corner from Kim to put IVC ahead, 2-1.

The Lasers kept attacking. Kim hit the crossbar with a shot in the 77^th minute.

And then in the 85^th minute, Asabi put the match away for the Lasers.

A ball was played ahead in space to Kim on the left side. He took on a defender and then sent a pass to Asabi, who one-timed his shot into the back of the net.

Kleinhammes and Asabi each scored their team-leading and conference-leading 11th goals of the season. The three assists for Kim gave him seven on the season, which leads the squad.

IVC's defense led by freshman goalie Nathan King, freshman defenders Garrett Hayes, Kyler Doverspike and Christopher Osuna and sophomore defender Jared Ellis did the rest.

King ended with five saves, including four in the second half. He also came off his line several times to clear balls away.

Irvine Valley gets a bye on Tuesday and then will finish the regular season next Friday at home against Cypress at 3 p.m. in another key conference match.