LONG BEACH, Calif. --- Two extra-man goals in the final stages of the fourth quarter proved to be the difference as 10^th-ranked UC Irvine fell to No. 5 Long Beach State, 8-6, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation game at the Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center.

Larson Pfeil, who led UCI (13-7, 1-3 MPSF) with two goals, scored on a power play with 6:29 left in the fourth period to tie the game at 6-6.

The 49ers' Dimitrios Lappas connected on an extra-man goal with 5:07 remaining and Zacchary Kappos followed with another power-play score at the 3:58 mark to give LBSU (14-3, 3-0) the 8-6 victory. 

Back-to-back goals 32 seconds apart by Pfeil and Lovre Milos gave UCI its only lead of the game at 2-1 with 5:21 left in the first quarter.

The 49ers took a 4-2 lead early in the second period but Miles Kalbus and Alan Robertson answered for the 'Eaters to knot the score at 4-4.

Lappas scored with 1:46 left in the second quarter to give LBSU a 5-4 halftime lead.

He scored the only goal of the third quarter at the 5:48 mark to push the 49ers ahead 6-4 entering the final period.

UCI's Jared Osborn cut the deficit to one at 6-5 on an extra-man goal with 7:13 remaining prior to Pfeil's game-tying score.

"We created good opportunities and struggled to covert high-percentage shots," UCI head coach Marc Hunt said.  "At the opening of the second half, we had great looks with poor finishes.

"We gave some bad exclusions in the fourth quarter that proved to be the dagger."

The 'Eaters host No. 4 California Sunday at 12:00 p.m. in an MPSF game at the Anteater Aquatics Complex.


UC Irvine                  2-2-0-2 --- 6
Long Beach State       3-2-1-2 --- 8

UCI:  Larson Pfeil 2, Lovre Milos, Miles Kalbus, Alan Robertson, Jared Osborn.

LBSU:  Zacchary Kappos 4, Dimitrios Lappas 3, Dan Matulis.

Saves:  Dylan Peterson (UCI) 9;  Pavo Ljepopio (LBSU) 11.