The troubles for the Irvine Valley men’s team in Orange Empire Conference play continued on Tuesday afternoon.

The Lasers gave up a halftime lead for the second straight game and saw their winless streak to open conference stretch to three with a 3-2 loss to Orange Coast.

"It was another one of those games," IVC Coach Martin McGrogan said. "We played good enough to win, but didn’t. And all of our mistakes ended up costing us."

The Lasers led, 2-0, after the first half.

Francisco Hernandez headed in a corner kick from Luis Miguel in the 13th minute to put IVC ahead, 1-0.

Miguel then took a pass from Scott Drennen and flicked the ball over Orange Coast goalie Brian Rippeto and into the net in the 44th minute to give the Lasers a 2-0 cushion.

But Orange Coast answered back 12 minutes into the second half. Takuma Hori was in the right spot after a free kick was sent into the box and he beat IVC goalie Julio Trejo with a shot.

Shun Katashima tied the game a few minutes later with a free kick, banging a shot from about 25 yards out, over the IVC wall and into the far left corner of the net.

Irvine Valley had to play the final 23 minutes of the match with just 10 players after Jesus Castillo was sent off with a red card.

The Lasers still had their chances down the stretch. The best was an opportunity for Miguel in the box with only the goalie in his way. But Miguel’s shot was saved by Rippeto.

Orange Coast earned the win, its second straight earned in the second half, when Dean Regis one-timed a cross from Denny Perdomo that beat Trejo.

Orange Coast stayed unbeaten in conference with the win (3-0-0) and improved its record to 6-4-0 overall.

IVC’s record slipped to 2-6-1 overall and 0-3-0 in conference.

The Lasers play again on Friday, hosting Santiago Canyon in a conference match at 3 p.m.