The Irvine Valley men's soccer team stayed in control of the standings in the Orange Empire Conference with an important 3-2 win over Saddleback on Tuesday afternoon at home.
The Lasers got off to a quick start, but had to hold on at the end in the victory.
Irvine Valley scored the first three goals of the game.
Freshman forward Jonathan Minney put IVC up, 1-0, with a one-timer from freshman midielder Sungho Yun in the eighth minute.
The Lasers went up, 2-0, later in the first half when freshman defender Drew Payne scored off of a pass from freshman forward Andrew Roldan.
Irvine Valley took a 3-0 lead two minutes into the second half.
Sophomore forward Armin Tehrani finished a penalty kick.
Saddleback battled back with two goals by Jefreyn Conteras in the 58th and 77th minutes.
But IVC freshman goalie Sansiro Murata made saves down the stretch and IVC hung on for the win.
Murata made four saves for Irvine Valley in the contest.
IVC finished with 11 shots in the match
The Lasers play again on Friday in a conference match at Santa Ana at 1 p.m.
