Men's Soccer

Men's soccer team seeded fourth, hosts playoff match Saturday

Courtesy of Elizabeth Elder
Courtesy of Elizabeth Elder

Irvine Valley's men's soccer team earned the No. 4 seed in the Southern California Regional Playoffs and will host No. 13 Victor Valley on Saturday at 2 p.m. at IVC.

The Lasers won the program's fourth Orange Empire Conference title this season and have a record of 14-2-5 overall. They went unbeaten in conference at 11-0-3.

Irvine Valley has been ranked in the state for most of the season and was fifth in the final poll of the regular season. The Lasers were recently ranked No. 14 in the nation for community colleges by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

"The kids worked really, really hard for this," Irvine Valley coach Martin McGrogan said after his team ended the regular season with a 4-0 win over Cypress at home last Friday. "Full credit goes to them. We have improved so much since early in the season. I always thought we could be a force going forward. I am very happy with the progress."

Irvine Valley has out-scored opponents, 45-17, this season. The difference was even more staggering in conference where IVC out-scored the rest of the OEC, 35-10.

The team is paced by freshman forward Toby Waterman, who has 17 goals and nine assists on the year. Waterman led the conference in goals and points (43) and tied for the lead in assists.

He also ranked tied for second in the state in goals and was second in points. He had three multiple-goal games this year and he scored a goal in each of Irvine Valley's three games to end the regular season.

Freshman midfielder Jose Rivera has 12 goals and five assists. He ranked third in conference in goals and third in points with 29.

Freshman forward Connor Elder was IVC's third player with double-digit goals scored this season. He ended the regular season with 10 goals and one assist.

Freshman forward Joseph Ferguson has five goals and four assists, including goals in the last two games and freshman midfielder Jose Gamboa has nine assists on the season, which tied for first in the conference.

IVC sophomore defender Cesar Ortiz and sophomore keeper Manuel Zamora have led an improving Laser defense. Zamora has a 1.01 goals against average and has 93 saves in 16 matches this season.

IVC posted six shutouts in conference play, including in its final two games of the regular season. IVC allowed one goal or less in 12 of 14 conference contests. Other big contributors on defense include freshmen Marcos Cervantes, Scott Clark, Khalid Francis and Ethan Thrall.

Victor Valley finished the year with a record of 11-7-2 overall and 3-3-2 in the Foothill Conference.

The Rams were fourth in their conference. But they were one of three teams from the conference that made the playoffs with the first two earning No. 1 and No. 2 seeds.

Chaffey is seeded first in the So. Cal. Regional Playoffs and Rio Hondo is second.

Victor Valley won its final two games of the regular season, including beating Chaffey, 3-2, on Nov. 3.

The Rams had an eight-match winning streak earlier in the season.

The team's leading scorer is Ariel Gomez with eight goals and three assists. Josh Goodman has five goals and six assists, Yehudi Marin has scored five goals and has three assists and Bernardo Salinas and Mario Cruz have each scored three goals.

The team's main goalie is Eduardo Solis and he has a 1.70 goals against average.

The winner of Saturday's game will take on the winner of No. 5 Cuyamaca and No. 12 San Diego City in the second round. Second round matches will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 24.

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