Irvine Valley's men's soccer team had a bit of tough luck over the weekend at the Hartnell Tournament in Salinas.
The Lasers fell to Fresno City, 2-1, on Friday and then lost, 2-1, to Cerritos on Saturday.
The two defeats dropped IVC's record to 0-3 overall. Playing one of the toughest early-season schedules in the state, IVC has lost all three games by one goal.
"We still played really well," IVC coach Conor Ward said. "We've played three of the toughest teams in the state. The guys aren't hanging their heads and we are learning a lot."
Against Fresno City on Friday, Irvine Valley ended up playing the final 35 minutes with only 10 men after a player was sent off with two yellow cards.
Fresno City started the scoring, in the 24th minute, but the Lases leveled the game in the 39th minute on an own goal by the Rams. Freshman midfielder Luke Newman ended up earning an assist on the goal.
The Lasers battled the rest of the way, but gave up the match-winning goal in the 78th minute.
Freshman Rolando Hernandez played the first half in goal for the Lasers and sophomore Josh Simonton was in goal for the final 45 minutes.
Hernandez made two saves and Simonton was credited with three saves.
On Saturday, IVC looked on its way to earning at least a result. The match was tied, 1-1, after 90 minutes. But one minute into extra time, Daniel Vazquez was able to find some room in the Laser defense and threaded a pass to Cesar Solarzano Garcia, who scored.
Irvine Valley got its goal from freshman forward Darian Muntean in the 40th minute off an assist from freshman defender Carter Cooper.
All three IVC goalies played in the contest and Ward used all but four players on his roster overall.
Hernandez was in goal the first 30 minutes, freshman Ali Tehrani played the second 30 minutes and Simonton finished the contest.
Irvine Valley plays again next Friday in its first home match of the season. The Lasers take on Southwestern at 1 p.m.
