Men’s Soccer Blanks Irvine Valley to Advance

TORRANCE, Calif. --- No. 4 seed El Camino College advanced to the next round of the California Community College Athletics Association Men's Soccer Southern California Regionals after posting a 3-0 shutout win over No. 5 Irvine Valley on Saturday night at Murdock Stadium.

The Warriors (17-2-2) got an early goal from Mario Carlos and then held off the Lasers (11-7-5) for nearly 80 minutes before two late goals gave ECC the insurance they needed.

Carlos opened the scoring in the 11th minute as he picked a Lasers' defender Lennart Granzow and then had a clean one-on-one against goalkeeper Tygo Steenvoorden, beating him to the far post to give the Warriors a quick 1-0 advantage.

That goal would have to hold for the majority of the match and goalkeeper Donovan Palomares was up to the task, making five saves and getting some help from the post to keep the clean sheet.

The Lasers had a few golden opportunities but hit the post in the 63rd minute and then blew a few breakaways against Palomares.

In the 90th minute, the Warriors finally got some breathing room as Jovanny Mejia curled a shot into the top corner off a pass from Carlos to make it 2-0.

Carlos would add his second tally of the night in stoppage time on a penalty kick to wrap up the scoring.

The Warriors will now face No. 5 seed Mt. San Antonio on Tuesday night with a game time still to be determined.