The Irvine Valley men's soccer team might have lost, 3-2, Tuesday afternoon at home against Cuyamaca.
But IVC head coach Conor Ward walked away from the match feeling good about his team and the performance.
"We are going to be just fine," Ward said.
Irvine Valley has played one of the toughest schedules in the state so far this season, was coming off a three-match win streak and battled a Cuyamaca team, which is the defending state champion, down to the wire.
Cuyamaca was ranked No. 6 in the state last week.
Irvine Valley's record slipped to 3-4-0 overall, while Cuyamaca stayed unbeaten at 6-0-1 overall.
The Lasers are done with the non-conference part of their schedule.
After taking on El Camino, Hartnell, Cerritos, Southwestern, San Diego Mesa, Rio Hondo and Cuyamaca, Irvine Valley begins Orange Empire Conference play with a home game against Orange Coast next Tuesday at 3 p.m.
IVC gave up the first goal of the match Tuesday on a penalty kick five minutes into the contest.
The Lasers answered in the 35th minute when sophomore forward Isaac Nixon scored off a rebound off of his initial shot to tie the score at 1-1. Sophomore forward Armin Tehrani earned the assist.
Cuyamaca took a 2-1 advantage in the 65th minute on a goal by Diego Sanchez Cervan.
IVC tied things up in the 73rd minute when Nixon was taken down in the box and Tehrani finished the penalty kick.
But Cuyamaca took the lead for good in the 77th minute when its second penalty kick goal of the game. Ali Almaliki scored from the spot for the second time in the game.
Freshman goalie Sansiro Murata ended with three saves for the Lasers.
IVC enters conference play with the second-best record in conference, behind only Cypress, which is 4-1-1 overall.
