LA JOLLA, Calif. --- Junior Antoine Lena scored three goals to help ninth-ranked UC Irvine down No. 17 Air Force, 10-8, at the Triton Invitational in La Jolla Sunday.
Lena, a transfer from Diablo Valley College, scored two of his goals in the second half. Junior Lovre Milos added a pair of goals in the game as the Anteaters improved to 2-0 on the season. He scored a total of seven goals in UCI's two tournament games.
After the teams were tied 2-2 after one quarter, Milos scored both of his goals, and Lena one, in the second period to give UCI a 5-3 lead at halftime.
Chris Swieca's goal 21 seconds into the third quarter put the 'Eaters up 6-3 before Air Force scored three straight times, tying the game at 6-6 on Robby Stiefel's goal with 4:00 left in the period.
Back-to-back goals by Brock Ivancovich (3:44) and Lena (2:12) gave UCI an 8-6 lead before the Falcons' Riley Thomas cut the Anteater lead to 8-7 on a goal with 1:49 remaining.
UCI held onto that lead moving into the fourth quarter, when Pablo Carballo scored with 4:33 left and Lena followed at the 3:54 mark to increase the 'Eaters' lead to 10-7.
Thomas closed out the scoring for Air Force (0-4) with 3:21 left in the game.
Dylan Peterson registered 11 saves in goal for UCI Sunday and had a total of 27 in the team's two tourney games.
"We had a slow start and missed capitalizing on good opportunities," 11th-year UCI head coach Marc Hunt said. "Our first half defense was strong, then we had a major letdown in the third quarter. We got back on track in the fourth and Antoine Lena had some solid scores to push us through.
"Moving forward, the whole team recognizes that we need to execute with greater discipline," Hunt added.
The 'Eaters play a pair of games in the Inland Empire Classic at Redlands Saturday, facing Redlands at 9:00 a.m. and Whittier at 1:20 p.m.
Air Force 2-1-4-1 --- 8
UC Irvine 2-3-3-2 --- 10
AF: Garrett Fisk 2, Robby Stiefel 2, Riley Thomas 2, Bryce Leiter, Justin Harrison.
UCI: Antoine Lena 3, Lovre Milos 2, Larson Pfeil, Jared Osborn, Chris Swieca, Brock Ivancovich, Pablo Carballo.
Saves: Caleb Guarino (AF) 12; Dylan Peterson (UCI) 11.
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