Irvine Valley's men's soccer team won the Orange Empire Conference title on Friday afternoon, defeating Golden West, 3-2, in a thrilling match in LeBard Stadium at Orange Coast College.
The Lasers and the Rustlers used the artificial turf at OCC due to the heavy off and on rain.
IVC went into the contest one point ahead of Cypress for first place in the standings.
Irvine Valley came out on fire, scoring the first three goals of the match in under 20 minutes.
Freshman defender Michael Baumgaertel opened the scoring in the third minute with a super header into the back of the net off of a corner kick from the right side off of the foot from freshman midfielder Sungho Yun.
And just a few minutes later, in the 13th minute, sophomore forward Isaac Nixon scored on a one-time shot in the box off of a beautiful pass from sophomore forward Armin Tehrani.
In the 18th minute, Irvine Valley made the score, 3-0, when freshman forward Andrew Roldan made a great move down the right side and then flicked a ball back across the box to Nixon, who headed it home.
Irvine Valley had to hold on from there.
Golden West made it a 3-1 game in the 23rd minute with a goal and then scored another just before halftime in the 45th minute.
IVC had a few more chances in the second half to extend its lead, but couldn't finish.
The Lasers were still the better side on the day and won their first conference championship since 2015 when that squad went 16-3-5 overall and 11-0-3 in the OEC.
IVC closed the 2025 regular season with a record of 13-7-1 overall and 10-3-1 in OEC play.
"I am grateful for the players, assistants and staff at IVC that make our environment what it is," head coach Conor Ward said. "The work that everyone puts in every day and over the years is the real foundation of our success."
Irvine Valley will find out its playoff opponent on Sunday afternoon. The playoffs start on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
