Irvine Valley's men's soccer team, with just three matches left in the regular season and pushing for a 3C2A playoff placing, defeated Santiago Canyon, 3-1, in an Orange Empire Conference match on Friday afternoon.
It was also sophomore day for the Lasers. IVC plays its final two games of the regular season on the road.
Irvine Valley plays at Orange Coast next Tuesday and then at Golden West on Friday. Both contests are slated for 3 p.m. starts.
With the win on Friday, the Lasers moved their record to 7-11-1 overall and 5-6-1 in the OEC. Santiago went to 2-14-2 overall and 0-11-1 in conference.
The Lasers out-shot the Hawks, 14-7, on the day.
Irvine Valley scored one goal in the first half to take the lead and then closed the match with two more goals in the second half.
IVC got on the board in the 15th minute with a goal by sophomore forwarde Armon Haghighat off of an assist by freshman forward Mason Tracey.
The Lasers went into the half with a 1-0 lead.
Irvine Valley made it a 2-0 game three minutes into the second half when sophomore forward Marcio Costa found the back of the net off a pass by Haghighat.
And after a goal by Santiago Canyons's Braydon Cerminelli in the 56th minute to make it a 2-1 game, IVC closed out things with a goal in the 89th minute from freshman forward Finn Monk.
Freshman defender Jorge Prado came through with the assist.
Irvine Valley sophomore keeper Josh Simonton finished with three saves in goal.
The Lasers honored the contibutions of sophomores Simonton, Jonas Foppen, Jamie Eijpenn, Isaiah Ponce, Costa, Haghighat, Noel Gomez, Logen Coffin, Moises Delgade, Jacob Peraza and Ethan Downey after the match.
