Irvine Valley's men's soccer team played the fourth-ranked team in the state, Santa Ana, about as even as possible Tuesday afternoon in an Orange Empire Conference match on the road.
Each team managed one solid scoring opportunity apiece, but only the Dons were able to take advantage of their chance and they defeated Irvine Valley, 1-0.
The opportunity for the Dons (8-2-4, 4-2-1) came in the 66th minute when Gary Carbajal controlled the ball on the end line and sent a pass to the front of the goal.
Jorge Muratalla found the ball and touched it into the goal for the only score of the game.
Irvine Valley (3-8-3, 2-5-0) seemed poised to score the equalizer late.
Freshman forward Sean Goode, who leads IVC in goals on the season, got past the Dons defense on a long pass and fired a shot on goal.
But Santa Ana goalie Dennis Hernandez got just enough of the ball with his hand, deflecting it up before it hit the cross bar and sailed out of bounds.
That was the only save made by Hernandez while his counterpart, IVC freshman keeper Elias Licea, made four saves with one goal allowed.
Irvine Valley is at home on Friday, hosting Cypress at 1 p.m. It is part of a doubleheader with the IVC women's team, which plays after at 3 p.m. against Golden West.
