UC Irvine senior Gor Kirakosyan and UC Riverside junior Ashkan Khosravi collected Big West Men’s Soccer Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week honors as they helped their sides attain positive results against West Coast Conference foes.

Kirakosyan Tallies Pair of Game-Winning Goals

UC Irvine’s Gor Kirakosyan (Burbank, Calif./Pasadena CC) scored a pair of game-winning goals in overtime to claim Big West Men’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Kirakosyan helped the sixth-ranked Anteaters topple a pair of West Coast Conference foes in Loyola Marymount and San Diego with his second and third goals of the season to keep UCI’s record unbeaten at 6-0-1.

In a 3-2 victory at LMU, Kirakosyan stepped to the line in the 105th minute of a tight battle and converted the penalty kick opportunity.  It was his first game-winning goal since 2012 after missing nearly two full seasons due to injuries.

The midfielder provided more late game heroics against the Toreros as he hooked up with a cross from Cameron Iwasa and deposited a shot inside the right post for the game-winner at the 91:50 mark.  Kirakosyan took a match-high four shots in the game.

Others nominated: Matt LaGrassa (Cal Poly); Garrett Losee (Cal State Fullerton); Ian Palmer (UC Davis)

Khosravi Registers Clean Sheet

UC Riverside junior Ashkan Khosravi (Dallas, Texas/Plano West HS) earned his fifth career Big West Men’s Soccer Defensive Player of the Week honor after posting his first shutout of the season.

The five Player of the Week citations tie Khosravi for third in conference history. 

Khosravi logged all 110 minutes of a scoreless draw against San Diego on Thursday.  His five saves helped the Highlanders extinguish a four-match losing slide, and silence a Torero offense that had produced 13 goals in six previous contests.

He also moved into third place on UCR’s career saves list with 124.

Others nominated: Wade Hamilton (Cal Poly); David Rodriguez Elias (Cal State Fullerton); Trevor Morley (CSUN); Javier Muñoz (Sacramento State); Ramon Martin Del Campo (UC Davis); Michael Sperber (UC Irvine)