Irvine Valley dropped a tough, 2-1, contest to district rival Saddleback in an Orange Empire Conference opening match on Tuesday at home.
Saddleback's record went to 4-2-1 overall, while IVC fell to 2-6-0 overall.
Saddleback scored the first two goals of the contest.
The Bobcats received two goals from Andrew Jun in the opening 45 minutes.
Jun opened the scoring in the 16th minute off a rebound from his own penalty kick.
He then made the score 2-0 for Saddleback in the 25th minute off an IVC deflection off of a free kick from Tyler Petersen.
Irvine Valley dominated the second half, taking seven shots and pressuring consistently over the final 20 minutes.
Irvine Valley made the game tight down the stretch with a goal from freshman Yahya Alsadeq in the 84th minute.
Freshman midfielder Luke Newman clipped the ball in. Alsadeq's first shot was saved, but he was able to follow up to put the ball in the back of the net.
IVC continued to pressure, but couldn't find the tying goal.
Irvine Valley sophomore goalie Josh Simonton made four saves in the match.
Saddleback started Tyler Bourbonnais in goal and he had five saves for the game.
IVC plays at Santa Ana Friday at 3 p.m. in another conference contest.
