Irvine Valley's men's soccer team exploded for three goals in the second half and defeated Orange Coast, 4-2, on the road and under the lights on Wednesday night.
It was Irvine Valley's sixth straight win and moved the Lasers back on top of Golden West by a point for first place in the Orange Empire Conference.
The Lasers improved to 9-4-3 overall and 7-1-2 in conference play.
The match at OCC was originally slated for Tuesday, but moved to Wednesday night due to unplayable conditions on the OCC turf from hot temperatures on Tuesday.
The night game suited the Lasers, who are ranked No. 13 in the state and No. 16 in the nation, just fine.
Irvine Valley got an early goal from freshman midfielder Alexis Campos to take a 1-0 lead.
Orange Coast answered with a goal on a penalty kick just before the end of the first half.
But the Lasers took the lead for good early in the second half, getting a goal from freshman forward Eder Olivas in the 48th minute.
IVC put the match away with two goals in the span of three minutes late.
Freshman midfielder Julian Anaya scored in the 84th minute off an assist from freshman midfielder Roberto Espino-Franco and then sophomore defender Andrew Hernandez gave IVC a 4-1 lead with a goal off a feed from Campos.
Orange Coast scored just before the end of the game to pull to within 4-2.
It was Olivas' team-leading ninth goal of the season. Campos scored his third goal and Anaya and Hernandez each slotted in their first goals of the season for IVC.
Freshman keeper Braden Peters started in goal and had two saves, while sophomore Ben Chamberlin played most of the second half and had one save for the Lasers.
Irvine Valley plays again on Friday, hosting a big conference match against rival Santa Ana at 3 p.m.
