The Irvine Valley men's soccer team wrapped up the opening round of Orange Empire Conference chasing Golden West on Monday.
The match was a make-up contest from last Tuesday. Because of thunder and lightning, the game had to be abondoned.
Started over from scratch on Monday, the Rustlers scored the first two goals and held on for a 2-1 victory.
IVC went into the contest in first place in the conference standings. The conference is up for grabs.
The Lasers slipped into third place with Monday's defeat. Santa Ana and Fullerton are tied for first with 3-1-1 records.
Irvine Valley moved to 8-5-2 overall and 3-2-1 overall.
Golden West started the scoring in the 34th minute when Sergio Vega headed in a cross from Francisco Vieira.
The Rustlers made it a 2-0 lead just a minute into the second half whe Nestor Daniel Molina scored off a rebound from a shot by Weldin Florian.
The Lasers continued to push forward and created chances.
IVC made it a game in the 71st minute (with both squads down to 10 players due to red cards on each side) when freshman forward Grant Miller found the back of the net on a header off of a cross by Christopher Camarena.
But Irvine Valley couldn't find another goal.
IVC freshman keeper Tygo Steenvoorden made eight saves on the day, incuding three solid ones at close range.
Irvine Valley has a bye on Tuesday in conference play and starts the second round of OEC play on Friday at Santa Ana at 3 p.m.
