It has been a tough season so far for the Irvine Valley men’s soccer team and it got a little worse for the Lasers Friday afternoon.

Santa Ana beat IVC, 3-0, in an Orange Empire Conference match at Irvine Valley.

Irvine Valley is still looking for its first victory in conference play. The Lasers’ record slipped to 2-7-3 overall and 0-4-2 in conference. IVC’s last victory came on Sept. 15 – a 3-2 non-conference win over Glendale.

Santa Ana won its second straight conference contest and moved back into the mix for another league title. The Dons improved their record to 5-4-4 overall and 3-1-2 in conference.

Santa Ana opened the scoring in the 28th minute. After Richard Rivera was fouled in the box, Adrian Negrete converted the penalty kick for a 1-0 lead. It was Negrete’s third goal in the last two matches.

IVC’s best chance to score came right at the end of the first half. Andy Martinez sent a ball into the middle to Edward Zepeda. Zepeda had only the goalie to beat, but rolled his shot wide to the left.

Santa Ana put the game away with two goals in a seven-minute span in the second half.

In the 70th minute, Cesar Silva took a pass from Daniel Ruiz and beat IVC keeper Julio Trejo with a shot.

And then in the 77th minute, Ivan Moreno scored the best goal of the match, heading in a cross knocked in from the left wing by Richard Rivera.

Trejo had four saves in goal for the Lasers and Santa Ana keeper Felipe Miranda made three saves.

Irvine Valley plays again next Tuesday at Cypress at 4 p.m.