It wasn't the Irvine Valley men's soccer team's day on Tuesday at the OC Great Park.
That and the Lasers ran into one of the top sides in the state.
Irvine Valley had its three-match win streak broken in a 3-0 loss to Taft. The Cougars (7-0-2) were ranked No. 1 in the state last week and stayed unbeaten on the year.
The Lasers, who have played one of the roughest schedule's in the state so far, had their record drop to 3-5-0 overall. IVC has now taken on No. 1 Taft, No. 2 Hartnell, No. 3 El Camino and No. 5 Cerritos.
A match-up with No. 9 Rio Hondo on the road on Thursday at 5 p.m. is next for IVC.
Taft got goals from Ebubechukwu Ekpemogu (17th minute), Osvaldo Navarro (49th minute) and Ekpemogu again (71st minute) in the victory.
"They were just the better team today," IVC coach Martin McGrogan said. "Give them the credit."
Irvine Valley's best chance to score might have come in the 62nd minute when freshman forward Ivan Lopez flicked a shot just over the top of the goal.
Laser freshman goalie Thomas Hutchinson finished with three saves on the day.
Irvine Valley plays Rio Hondo on Thursday and then opens Orange Empire Conference play next Tuesday against Cypress at the OC Great Park at 3 p.m.
