Bobcats outlast district rivals

The Saddleback men's soccer defeated Irvine Valley College, 2-1, on Friday afternoon inside the stadium.  The Bobcats are alone in fourth place following the win.

Saddleback and Irvine Valley battled for 90 minutes for supremacy in the district.  The Bobcats came out on top after scoring with just over 11 minutes remaining to break a tie.

Saddleback opened the scoring in the 28^th minute when Sepand Soutehkashan rattled home a rebound after Kevin Sanchez has blasted a ball off the post.  It was Soutehkashan's first goal of the season.

Irvine Valley came out hot in the second half and took the play to the Bobcats in the early goings.  The Lasers finally caught a break when one of their players was taken down in the box in the 50^th minute.  Luke Newman was called upon to take the penalty kick and beat the Saddleback keeper to the left side to tie the game.

The game remained even until the 80^th minute when Saddleback broke the stalemate.  Jason Starcks had a beautiful feed to Kevin Sanchez, who planted a ball in the left side of the netting to give the Bobcats a 2-1 lead.

Irvine Valley made a furious charge in second half but was unable to beat Saddleback keeper Tyler Bourbonnais to tie the game.  Bourbonnais finished with three saves for the game in improving to 2-1-2 for the season.

Saddleback is now 6-4-4 overall and 3-2-3 in Orange Empire Conference (OEC) play.  The Bobcats are now alone in fourth place in the OEC.

Saddleback will play again on Tuesday at Cypress College.  The Bobcats and Chargers are set to start at 3:00 PM in Cypress.