The Irvine Valley men’s soccer team leveled its record on the season with a 2-0 nonconference victory over San Diego Mesa in the Lasers’ home opener on Tuesday.

Freshman forward Edward Zepeda scored two goals in the second half for Irvine Valley, which improved to 2-2 after dropping two of three games at the Hartnell Tournament last weekend.

After a sluggish first half in which San Diego Mesa out-shot the Lasers, 8-4, and had the better opportunities on goal, Irvine Valley picked up the pace in the final 45 minutes.

Two minutes into the second half, freshman Alfie Nowak sent a pass forward from his central defender position to Zepeda, who lined a shot from the top of the box over Mesa’s goalie and into the back of the net.

The Olympians nearly evened the score 10 minutes later, but freshman defender Jesus Castillo was able to clear the ball from the goal mouth after a shot had deflected off IVC freshman goalie Kurt Bond.

Bond made one other solid save in the second half.

The Lasers put the game out of reach in the 86th minute. Freshman forward Francisco Hernandez played a ball inside to sophomore forward Luis Miguel. The Mesa goalie was able to get a hand on Miguel’s shot, but the ball fell right to a waiting Zepeda, who tapped it on the back post.

Miguel nearly had a goal of his own in the final minute, but the Mesa goalie made a diving save to stop his shot from the left side.

Irvine Valley ended up out-shooting Mesa, 10-4, in the second half and, 14-12, for the match.

Bond finished with four saves in net for the Lasers.

"We were coming off a weekend where we had three tough games in a row and I think we were a bit out of sorts at the start," IVC Coach Martin McGrogan said. "But we eventually put some things together and created chances. The boys kept working hard and that was the most important thing. It was definitely a workmanlike performance. And it was nice to come away with a clean sheet (shutout)."

Irvine Valley is back in action on Thursday. It travels to Moorpark for a nonconference contest.