A new era has arrived.

No. 21 UCLA men’s soccer (1-0) defeated No. 11 LMU (0-1) 2-0 in its season opener at Wallis Annenberg Stadium on Thursday night.

Graduate student midfielder Edrey Caceres stepped up to the plate in his first game with the Bruins. The Marquette transfer had an impactful debut, netting two free kicks in the first half of the contest.

“It felt amazing,” Caceres said. “I knew it as soon as I hit it. It was amazing to help the team win, and the energy of the team is good now, so we’re looking forward to keeping it going.”

The Houston local scored his first free kick nearly 30 minutes into the contest. The kick came outside of the 18-yard box, curling into the top right corner of the net.

After scoring his first goal as a Bruin, Caceres ran to the UCLA sideline to hug his new coach – Ryan Jorden.

“We know he can hit a free kick,” Jorden said. “Obviously, Edrey scored the first one and had a lot of confidence, and he got the second one. That’s a terrific start for him, and I thought he played a really good role in our team today.”

Caceres added his second goal seconds before the end of the first half. In almost identical fashion to his first free kick, the ball came right outside the 18-yard box, and Caceres celebrated with a reenactment of Turkish Olympic sharpshooter Yusuf Dikec’s trademark celebration from the Paris Games.

“He (Jorden) gave me the opportunity to be here,” Caceres said. “He believed in me, and what a way to pay it back. I need to keep improving the way that I play, and we just need to keep going, to keep looking forward to those moments.”

The Bruins – who notched 14 shots and restricted their foes to seven – took early command on the duel and didn’t relinquish it. The squad also added three more shots on goal and three more corner kicks compared to its LMU counterparts.

While the stat sheet shows that UCLA outpaced LMU offensively in terms of number of chances, it fails to reveal that the Bruins also led their opponents in quality.

“I don’t think anybody in the place would have thought we shouldn’t have scored five (goals) based on the chances and the types of chances they were, and so that can sometimes be a result of not being sharp enough as midseason flow,” Jorden said.

UCLA’s greatest advantage was its midfield trio in Caceres, junior Cam Wilkerson and junior Tarun Karumanchi. While Caceres was responsible for both goals, Wilkerson contributed four shots – one of which was a left-footed volley that rocketed off the crossbar less than 30 minutes into the game.

Karumanchi counteracted as a defensive stalwart in the midfield. The San Ramon, California, local continued his central defensive midfielder role from last season against LMU playing the full 90 minutes – a feat he achieved five times last season.

“I love a player like that (Karumanchi),” Caceres said. “He can just destroy plays, I can give him the ball and he can give it right back and it makes it easier. It makes my job a lot easier. I’m just happy to play along those guys.”