Irvine Valley's men's soccer team's season came to a close on Saturday afternoon in the first round of the California Community College Athletic Association Southern California Regional Playoffs.
The Lasers went into the contest having split two matches with Santa Ana during the Orange Empire Conference with IVC beating the Dons, 1-0, in the last match of the regular season on Nov. 9.
But Santa Ana came out on top, 3-1, on Saturday afternoon in the playoff contest in a hard-fought battle at Santa Ana.
The match was tied, 1-1, at the half, and the Lasers out-shot Santa Ana in the contest, but the Dons scored two goals late in the second half to pull out the victory and move on to the second round of of the playoffs.
Irvine Valley finished its season with a record of 9-10-3 overall.
As expected, it was a competitive match for 90 minutes but the Dons (10-5-6) managed to gain an edge to take the season series.
Josue Martinez put SAC on the board first with a header into the right side of the IVC goal in the 25th minute.
Irvine Valley answered back just one minute later with a score. Freshman forward Ivan Lopez took a corner kick that ended up across the box and sophomore forward Izzy Abdelkader hit a great strike that beat the Don keeper.
After the break, Marcelo Aguirre scored the go-ahead goal in the 65th minute to put the Dons ahead, 2-1.
Irvine Valley had its own chances in the second half, including two free kicks just outside of the box by Lopez. One went just over the bar and the other was saved by SAC's keeper.
Santa Ana closed out the game in extra time with a goal by Julian Cardenas as he floated a shot into the upper left corner to give the Dons the 3-1 win.
