BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff DeShaun
Foster is held down by the University of Washington’s
defense as the Huskies held the Bruins to 28 points on Saturday.
The Huskies beat UCLA 35-28. UCLA 10 USC 0
By Greg Lewis
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
SEATTLE, Wash “”mdash; UCLA went to Seattle to play the
nation’s sixth-ranked team on its home turf and came within a
touchdown of winning. The fact that Washington is one of the best
teams in the country offers no solace to the Bruins.
“That doesn’t matter at all,” said quarterback
Cory Paus. “I played the worst first half of my life, and we
lost because of me. That’s horrible.”
Paus was hard on himself, but the end result was due as much to
the magnificent play of his counterpart, Washington’s Marques
Tuiasosopo. The Washington quarterback threw for 111 yards and
rushed for 69, but even more importantly, he provided a threat that
kept the Bruins out of their normal defensive game plan.
“When you haven’t faced (an option attack like
theirs) it’s hard to get the rhythm, speed of the
option,” said UCLA defensive coordinator Bob Field.
“Tuiasosopo made plays, their running backs made plays,
they all made plays.”
The stress that the option put on the team allowed
Washington’s veteran offensive line to open up huge holes in
the middle of the field for Washington’s trio of running
backs. UCLA’s main weakness was its lack of depth on an
injury depleted front seven and the Huskies exploited it fully.
Perhaps the biggest blow came when Butkus Award candidate middle
linebacker Robert Thomas aggravated a foot injury and missed all of
the fourth quarter.
“I need to be in there,” Thomas said.
“Somebody needs to be out there to get things
done.”
Tackle Ken Kocher played a few snaps but reinjured his knee and
missed the second half. End Sean Phillips came back from an injured
ankle but played sparingly. In addition, end Rusty Williams started
but also missed action because of a separated shoulder injury.
Washington ran up and down the field for a total of 349 yards.
Running back Rich Alexis rushed for 127 yards in 21 carries and
Willie Hurst went for 99 on 11 carries. Tuiasosopo also threw in 60
yards of his own.
“We don’t have enough defensive linemen right now,
and we wore down in the second half,” Toledo said.
“They had the ball a lot.”
One bright spot was the play of Mat and Dave Ball at the end
spots. On one play in the second quarter, Mat busted up the middle
and chased a confused Tuiasosopo right into the waiting arms of his
twin brother, who ended up with a sack, two tackles for losses and
a forced fumble. That play led to a Washington punt, which UCLA
eventually converted into their second score.
The game started off as every Bruin game has this season ““
with the other team scoring a touchdown. This time, Washington put
together a masterful 10-play, 80-yard drive to go up 7-0. On that
drive, the Huskies ran consecutive option plays from Tuiasosopo to
running back Alexis for gains of 16 and 19 yards, but more
importantly, showing UCLA that they had to respect the outside.
UCLA got the ball back and DeShaun Foster opened the drive with
one of only four UCLA rushing first downs of the day, but UCLA
could only get eight more yards before punting away to Washington.
The Huskies ran nine straight plays for 79 yards, and Hurst put the
Huskies up 14- 0.
On the ensuing possession, Paus tossed the first of his two
bombs to Brian Poli-Dixon for 48 yards down to the Washington
5-yard line. Paus then put a perfectly placed 5-yarder into the
hands of fullback Ed Ieremia-Stansbury for a 5-yard touchdown.
UCLA got the ball back a minute and a half later after
Ball’s forced fumble, but Paus turned the ball over. Trying
to force the ball in to a well-covered Ieremia-Stansbury,
Washington’s Greg Carothers made the pick.
“He’s got to learn to get rid of the
football,” Toledo said. “He’s got to learn to
throw the football away and not throw interceptions. That’s
just inexperience and hopefully he’ll learn from
that.”
After trading punts, UCLA drove the ball to the Washington
12-yard line, with the help of a personal foul call. Foster rushed
around the left side for the first of his two touchdowns. After
holding the Huskies again, Paus opened the next drive with his
second long throw, this one 45 yards to Poli-Dixon, who went down
at the one yard line. Foster punched the ball through the middle of
the line to put UCLA up 21-14 at halftime. He finished with 93
yards on 20 carries, and was the only Bruin to carry the ball the
whole game.
Washington opened the third quarter by busting Hurst up the
middle for 62 yards, down to the UCLA 9-yard line. Two plays later,
fullback Pat Coniff bulled his way into the end zone to tie up the
score at 21.
The Huskies also scored on the next two possessions, including
an 11-play 95-yarder, to go up 35-21. Replays, however, clearly
showed that Washington’s final score, a third-and-five
touchdown pass to Todd Elstrom was dropped and should not have
counted.
The Bruins, despite giving up three touchdowns and falling
behind by 14 in the third quarter, had a chance to win. With 3:35
left in the game, Paus ran the two-minute drill to perfection,
completing eight passes, the final one a 7-yard touchdown to
Poli-Dixon.
UCLA stopped the Huskies on downs and got the ball back with 27
seconds left. Paus, however, was chased out of the pocket and
fumbled, sealing the win for Washington.
“We lost the game because of me,” Paus said
again.
Funny thing though, he said, “Even when things go wrong,
we put up points.”
GAME SUMMARY BOX DEFEATED 32-28 BRIAN
POLI-DIXON
The wide receiver had his biggest game as a Bruin, gathering 165
yards and one touchdown on eight catches. He had big gains of 48
and 45 yards that set up two other UCLA scores.
The first play of the second half, when Washington running back
Willie Hearst rumbled 62 yards to the UCLA 9-yard line, setting up
the tying touchdown for the Huskies. Washington went on to score 21
points in a row.
39 to 21, as in a 2-1 advantage in time of possession. UCLA
could ill-afford to have its injury-depleted front-seven out on the
field for too long, but that is exactly what happened.
"I threw a freakin’ interception in the red zone." -UCLA
quarterback Cory Paus, discussing his mistakes after the game
Nine games into the season, the Huskies had punted or turned the
ball over on all their opening drives. That streak ended when they
faced UCLA, who in all 10 of their games have let opponents score
first with a TD.
Original by PAULINE VU/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Web Adaptation
by MONICA KWONG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff