LOS ANGELES, Calif. --- Ninth-ranked UC Irvine struck first with a pair of early goals, but No. 1 UCLA gained control in the second quarter in topping the Anteaters, 17-9, in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener for both teams at Spieker Aquatics Complex Saturday morning.

Lovre Milos and Matt Skinner scored goals in the first two minutes of the game for a 2-0 Anteater lead.

The Bruins then responded with four straight goals to lead 4-2 after one period and outscored UCI 4-1 in the second quarter to go up 8-3 at halftime.

UCLA (13-0, 1-0) added two goals early in the third for a 10-3 lead before Skinner scored his second goal of the game with 4:50 left in the period to the cut the gap to 10-4.

Cristiano Mirarchi's score at the 3:41 mark put the Bruins up 11-4 and Milos countered with 2:21 left in the third quarter to bring UCI within 11-5.

UCLA, leading 13-5 entering the final period, built a 16-6 lead before Pablo Carballo scored a pair of goals and Skinner his third of the game to narrow the margin to 16-9 with 1:00 remaining prior to UCLA netting the final goal with 23 seconds left.

In addition to Skinner's three goals, Milos and Carballo added two each for the 'Eaters (10-3, 0-1).

"Defensively, we struggled at all positions," UCI head coach Marc Hunt said.  "We allowed their centers too much positive production and we couldn't stop the 6-on-5 even remotely.

"Our offensive output was the very small silver lining to this defeat.  Scoring nine goals on this defense is at least pointing us in the right direction.  Skinner had some nice outside shots and Lovre was able to get a few with a very determined defense to stop him.  (Alan) Robertson kept up high-energy drives that created some good shots."

UCI travels to Stanford next Saturday (Oct. 4) for an MPSF game at 10:30 a.m. on the Pac-12 Networks.

UC Irvine         2-1-2-4 --- 9
UCLA              4-4-5-4 --- 17

UCI:  Matt Skinner 3, Lovre Milos 2, Pablo Carballo 2, Brendan Duffy, Alan Robertson.

UCLA:  Danny McClintick 4, Chancellor Ramirez 3, Gordon Marshall 3, Paul Reynolds 2, Maxwell Irving, Cristiano Mirarchi, Daniel Lenhart, Christopher Meinhold, Jack Fellner.

Saves:  Dylan Peterson (UCI) 4, Byron Rivers (UCI) 5;  Garrett Danner (UCLA) 8, James Hartshorne (UCLA) 2.