The Irvine Valley men's soccer team earned its second straight shutout this week, beating Riverside, 4-0, Friday afternoon in an Orange Empire Conference game at home.

The win on Friday was a big one for IVC.

Riverside was the hottest team in the conference, having won three straight matches with two of the victories over two of the top squads in conference (Santa Ana and Santiago Canyon). Riverside was in second place in the conference standings heading into Friday.

And to shut out Riverside was impressive. Led by sophomore defenders Darren Whitty and Christian Correa-Henschke, IVC stymied the conference’s highest scoring team.

Riverside entered the game having scored 35 goals in 15 matches and 10 goals in its last three contests alone.

Riverside scored four goals in a 4-4 tie with IVC in an earlier conference game.

But the Lasers were the only ones scoring on Friday. Freshman midfielder Jack Plummer scored IVC’s lone goal in the first half. Freshman forward Corey Cordray played the ball to sophomore midfielder Scott Gressard, who crossed the ball to Plummer and Plummer finished.

The Lasers put the game away early in the second half. IVC was awarded a penalty kick and Plummer put the shot away to give the team a 2-0 lead. The two goals were Plummer’s sixth and seventh of the season. All of his goals have come in conference play.

Sophomore forward Erik Van Der Meulen and freshman forward Hyun-Jun Park also scored goals for the Lasers in the second half to seal the win. It was the second straight game that Van Der Meulen scored.

Freshman goalie Mikhail Radchuk recorded his second shutout of the week and fifth of the season, having to make just two saves.

The win improved IVC’s record to 9-4-2 and 4-2-2 in conference. IVC now has 14 points and sits one point ahead of Riverside in the standings. Going into Friday, Santa Ana led with 16 points and Santiago Canyon was right in the mix with 13 points.

“Hopefully this week gets us going back in the right direction,” IVC Coach Martin McGrogan said.