UCLA Moves Within Win of Rose Bowl : Lee Misses Three Field Goals, but Bruins Roll, 41-0

There were only three surprises in UCLA’s game against Oregon State Saturday afternoon at the Rose Bowl. John Lee missed a field-goal attempt. John Lee missed a second field-goal attempt. And John Lee missed a third field-goal attempt.

Otherwise, it was business as usual.

UCLA ran over Oregon State, 41-0, before a crowd of 45,102. The Bruins are one game away from the Pac-10 title and a berth in the Rose Bowl game.

The way the Bruins are playing now, they have to be considered the favorites to beat USC next Saturday, even though the game will be played at the Coliseum.

UCLA, now 8-1 overalland 6-1 in the conference, was actually merciful to Oregon State, which is 3-7 overall and 2-5 in the conference.

Considering the statistics (the Bruins held the Beavers to two yards rushing and 131 yards passing while totaling 569 yards themselves) and the fact that Oregon State lost freshman quarterback Rich Gonzales in the second quarter and couldn’t keep its offense on the field after that, it could have been much worse.

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue went to his second string as soon as the game was secure, which was not until the third period. And he went to some third- and fourth-string players as the clock wound down.

Oregon State Coach Dave Kragthorpe said: “Terry Donahue is a real gentleman. UCLA could have scored a lot of points in the second half if they had wanted to. Donahue was very kind and gracious, and I thank him.”

UCLA could have, and indeed should have, scored some more points in the first half. The way the Bruins were blowing opportunities, there was a smell of upset in the air for a while.

UCLA took a 3-0 lead on a 19-yard field goal by Lee after a strong drive early in the first quarter. That kick gave Lee a string of 18 straight field goals this season and a string of 22 dating back to last season.

But the Bruins started to falter after that first score.

Bruin defensive tackle Mark Walen hit Gonzales, forcing a fumble, on the first play from scrimmage after Lee’s field goal. Nose guard Jim Wahler recovered at the OSU 17. But on the Bruins’ third play, quarterback David Norrie threw a ball into the end zone that was intercepted by free safety Jamie Norman to squelch that opportunity. Norrie said, “I saw the guy, but I just underthrew the pass. I threw a bad ball.”

UCLA’s next drive ended with Lee’s first miss of the season. It came from 39 yards out and was wide to the left by about three feet.

Lee dropped to his knees in disbelief.

Donahue said that he was surprised that Lee had missed, but he wasn’t shocked because an injury to Lee and an injury to holder David Clinton had kept the field goal team from practicing together all week.

Lee missed Monday and Tuesday because of a muscle that he pulled in the game at Arizona the previous Saturday and Clinton missed the rest of the week after he dislocated his shoulder while catching a pass on Tuesday.

In the second quarter, OSU kicker Jim Nielsen missed a 51-yarder, and the Bruins’ next drive, which included a penalty on Norrie for throwing a pass from beyond the line of scrimmage, ended with a punt.

Bruin outside linebacker Eric Smith sacked Gonzales on third down for a loss of 11 yards, forcing another quick punt. And the Bruins’ next drive went for naught when Lee missed a 51-yarder that was short against the wind.

Lee had never before--not even in high school--missed two field goals in one game.

The Bruins finally scored a touchdown on a three-play drive that included a 61-yard pass play to Flipper Anderson. Tailback Gaston Green, who seems to be fully recovered from his knee injury, sprinted up the left sideline for 21 yards on the second play and scored over the top from the 1 on the third.

Before the half was out, the defense again gave the offense great field position when Smith blocked a punt and Wahler recovered on the Oregon State 33. That wound up with a 46-yard attempt by Lee, again against the wind and again short.

So the half ended with UCLA up by a mere 10-0.

“At halftime, really, the game was obviously very much in the balance,” Donahue said. “I had tried to prepare the team for the type of football that Oregon State is capable of. We were in a fight with a good team.

“We weren’t playing badly. We were just squandering some scoring opportunities. . . . I didn’t know the stats, but I knew were were accumulating yardage. I think we were pressing a little bit.”

The Bruins took the second-half kickoff and drove 80 yards to score on an 11-yard pass to Paco Craig, Craig’s first score of the season, to put UCLA up, 17-0.

And on Oregon State’s second offensive play, a pass from backup quarterback Don Lema was intercepted by free safety James Washington and returned 29 yards for the touchdown that put UCLA up, 24-0.

“That was the key play,” Donahue said. “You could feel it on the sidelines. There was a giant sigh of relief from the entire team. That really ignited us. It took the pressure off.”

Lee’s 41-yard field goal at the end of the next drive made it 27-0 and after strong safety Joe Gasser (playing in place of injured Craig Rutledge) intercepted Lema at the Oregon State 38, quarterback Matt Stevens took over to lead the Bruins on a short touchdown drive that ended with tailback Eric Ball’s five-yard run.

Stevens directed the next touchdown drive, too, and third-string fullback Greg Francois scored on an eight-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Oregon State’s last two drives ended with interceptions--one by second-string cornerback Darryl Henley and one by third-string cornerback Kirk Alexander.

The shutout was the first for the Bruins since beating Washington, 31-0, in 1981.

Figuring in Oregon State’s 63-0 loss at USC earlier this season, the cumulative score is Los Angeles 104, Corvallis 0.

It’s hard to compare a 63-0 loss to a 41-0 loss, and Kragthorpe wasn’t about to make a UCLA-USC comparison. He did say, “UCLA is as good as any team we’ve seen this year.”

As for Donahue, he’s hesitant to talk about a Pac-10 title or a Rose Bowl berth until after next week’s big game.

“I’m delighted to be in the position that we’re in,” Donahue said. “Our team has done a terrific job, considering how many young players we have and the kind of schedule we faced.

“But I like to fret, and I have a lot of fretting to do this week. We have to do battle with our archrival, and it’s going to be a terrific battle.”