The Irvine Valley men's soccer team starts its run in the 3C2A So. Cal. Regional playoffs on Wednesday at Long Beach City with a match start time at 4 p.m.
Irvine Valley, which captured its first Orange Empire Conference title last Friday with a 3-2 victory over Golden West behind two goals from sophomore forward Isaac Nixon, was seeded 17th in the playoffs in the south.
Irvine Valley has a record of 13-7-1 overall.
The Lasers take on a Long Beach City team that is seeded 16th, won the South Coast Conference South Division and has a record of 9-6-5 overall.
The Vikings have won four of their final seven matches with two ties.
They are led by Cesar Garcia Solorzano with seven goals and eight assists for 22 points.
Joshua Grado had six goals and seven assists, Julian Zarate has added six goals and two asssists and Eric Diaz has five goals on the year for the Vikings.
Irvine Valley had nine players named to Orange Empire Conference teams earlier this week (story to follow later this week) with coach Conor Ward being named coach of the year and sophomore standout midfielder Cristian Sanchez being named the most valuable player in the conference.
The Lasers' offense is explosive.
They have out-scored opponents, 55-30, on the season.
Freshman forward Andrew Roldan scored 10 goals. Sophomore forwards Armin Tehrani and Nixon each finished with nine goals and freshman defender Michael Baumgaertel ended with seven goals.
Tehrani also had 11 assists and ended with 29 points.
The winner of Wednesday's contest travels to the No. 1 seed in the south, Santa Monica, for the second round on Saturday at 2 p.m.
