Green and UCLA Make It a Runaway, 45-25 : Tailback Helps Rout USC With 224 Yards, 4 TDs; Bruins Add Hail-Matt Pass

UCLA linebacker Ken Norton Jr. was right. USC has got a great band. It’s their football team that needs a little practice.

Actually, the Trojans are quite a good team, at least a 7-3 team, but they didn’t show it Saturday against UCLA, which reached its potential just in time for the regular season to end.

As a Rose Bowl sellout crowd of 98,370 looked on in semi-shock, UCLA cleaned out a whole closet of frustrations and stunned USC, 45-25, the Trojans’ third-worst defeat in the 56-year history of the series.

“It was a very important, very crucial win for us because it allowed us to salvage the season,” UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said.

For the 7-3-1 Bruins, the salvage work resulted in a landslide victory of such proportions that no one could have expected it. Not even Norton, although he had said during the week that UCLA would beat USC badly and that the Trojan band is the best thing about the school.

“I was just lucky,” Norton said of his prediction. “The band was really good, too.”

So, on a windswept day, the Bruins constructed a blowout, built upon the running of Gaston Green, a tailback who statistically hurt the Trojans worse than any ballcarrier ever has.

Green gained 224 yards in 39 trips through the line and did not stop until he had scored four touchdowns in one of the most dominating performances in UCLA history.

If USC Coach Ted Tollner was worried about stopping Green, his fears were certainly justified.

“We knew we had to stop him in order to win,” Tollner said. “They didn’t surprise us. We just couldn’t stop the run.”

There was no discounting some sort of surprise factor, however. Although Donahue had said there was no way the Bruins could “mash” the ball against USC on the ground, he was wrong, because that’s exactly what they did.

UCLA finished with 289 yards rushing and also had a total offense of 512 yards, the most yardage the Trojans have allowed all season.

And if the Bruins’ stock soared while Green ran as though he had some kind of insider’s information, what about the UCLA passing game?

It shot up a few points itself behind quarterback Matt Stevens, who came up with an absolutely stunning play just before halftime that left the Trojans thirsting for the Florida Citrus Bowl.

Green’s touchdown runs of 46, 27 and 2 yards and a 23-yard field goal by David Franey had already propelled UCLA to a 24-0 lead when Air Matt seemed to put the game out of reach with one flick of his wrist.

What did he do? He threw a Hail Mary, a prayer, which in this case could be called a Hail-Matt pass.

With only nine seconds left in the first half, on second and nine from the USC 39, Stevens launched a pass that had the trajectory of a rainbow and was aimed for the end zone.

Three USC defenders leaped, and so did the intended receiver, Flipper Anderson. The ball was tipped into the air, where it was finally reeled in by Karl Dorrell with no time left on the clock.

Touchdown, UCLA. Also 31-0, UCLA. The pass was surely an answered prayer, which hasn’t always been the case for the Bruins this season.

“It was a fluke,” Dorrell said. “It’s like a desperation pass. It’s not a play that’s going to work 100% of the time.”

But it did, once, and that was enough for the Bruins. Stranger things have happened, of course, but not recently.

“It worked perfectly,” said Stevens, who had his best game of the season against a quality opponent: 14 completions in 19 attempts for 190 yards and 2 touchdowns, with not a single interception.

In all, the Bruins spent most of the day working their game plan to near-perfection.

“The difference in points could have been even greater,” Donahue said, “but the key was not to beat USC by 20 points, the key was to beat USC.”

To that end, the UCLA defense did not allow a point until the score was already 38-0. And the UCLA offensive line blocked better than it had all season, not only springing Green time after time but also allowing Stevens enough seconds to throw the ball with precision.

“This was one of the brightest moments in UCLA history,” Donahue said.

“I don’t know what to say about our offensive line except that they were great,” he said. “From the first play on, Gaston was slamming the ball against that defense, and the offensive line did exactly what an offensive line is supposed to do.”

Ample evidence was supplied early. UCLA scored on its second possession, when Green broke an off-tackle play on the USC 46, charged past a diving Tim McDonald and avoided Louis Brock as he cut to the left sideline for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

Before the quarter was over, Green had scored again. His second touchdown covered 27 yards, behind a clearing block by Onno Zwaneveld, and suddenly the Bruins had a 14-0 lead.

By that point, it was obvious that UCLA was off and running. Tollner felt it.

“The whole first half was kind of a shock,” he said.

After Franey’s field goal, Green scored again, concluding an 80-yard drive with a two-yard run into the end zone for a 24-0 Bruin lead. Green, who finished the first half with 168 yards on 24 carries, was left to wonder how this game would affect his chances for next year’s Heisman Trophy.

“Hopefully, I can get a chance at it,” Green said.

Said Stevens: “If he doesn’t win the Heisman next year, I want to know what went wrong.”

But first, there was plenty more to go right. The touchdown pass by Stevens that ended the first half might have been the Bruins’ high point, but they put the game positively and totally beyond reach with an 80-yard scoring drive that began the second half.

Guess who finished that one off? Green took a pitchout from Stevens and ran the one yard that advanced the scoreboard to 38-0.

But the key play of the drive was provided by none other than Dorrell, the Hail-Matt pass recipient. Dorrell, a flanker, threw a 33-yard pass to Anderson, a split end, who caught the ball on the USC five-yard line after it was once again tipped in the air.

Meanwhile, up in the press box, USC Athletic Director Mike McGee was asked whether the Florida Citrus Bowl representatives might be able to back out of their deal.

McGee shook his head no. “Thank God,” he said.

The Trojans and their bowl benefactors felt slightly better about themselves the rest of the way, but by then, it was too late. UCLA allowed the Trojans just 45 yards rushing, their lowest total of the season.

Tailback Ryan Knight, who played the entire game because Aaron Emmanuel was sidelined with a sprained toe, gained only 21 yards in 9 carries and scored twice on one-yard runs. Quarterback Rodney Peete, who wound up with 18 completions in 38 attempts for 199 yards, threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to flanker Randy Tanner. USC got 18 points in the final period, but that did little to take away the sting of losing to their crosstown rivals for the city’s affection.

“We were whipped in every phase of the game, especially in the first half,” Tollner said.

And so there was really nothing left to do except accept bowl invitations afterward.

Beneath one end of the stands, Donahue shook hands with Mickey Mouse, who had showed up to represent the Freedom Bowl of Anaheim, the home of Disneyland.

In the Trojan locker room, Tollner shook hands with Chuck Rohe, executive director of the Florida Citrus Bowl, and then accepted an invitation to play Auburn Jan. 1.

“I know we didn’t show it today, but we’re going to make you happy you invited us to your bowl,” Tollner said.

Donahue accepted the Freedom Bowl’s invitation for a Dec. 30 appearance from Executive Director Tom Starr, who might have been the happiest man in the room.

“It’s a dream come true,” Starr said. “It’s the best thing that ever happened to us.”

The best thing that happened to the Bruins this season did not occur without a team meeting Friday night. Norton said a number of seniors spoke up about what the game meant to them.

There was also another factor: The Bruins played the game with pieces of black tape on the back of their helmets with a No. 88 drawn on the tape as a memorial to former teammate Al Wilson. Wilson, who was a receiver on the team last season, died Thursday in what authorities believe was a suicide.

“He was very dear to us,” Norton said. “No doubt about it, we came to play. It meant so much for us to salvage the season and go out sweet.

“This was our season right here,” he said. “This was our Rose Bowl.”

Trojan-Bruin Notes

UCLA finished with a 5-2-1 Pac-10 record, and USC finished 5-3. . . . UCLA has won five of its seven games with USC in the 1980s. . . . Gaston Green’s 224 yards rushing was the fourth-best game in school history. Theotis Brown had 274 in 1978, Freeman McNeil 248 in 1980 and Eric Ball 227 in the 1986 Rose Bowl. Green also bettered his previous one-game record of 194, last season against Tennessee. Green tied the UCLA record for carries with 39. Anthony Edgar also had 39 in 1979 against Wisconsin. Quarterback Matt Stevens moved into fourth place on the UCLA single-season completion list with 143, behind Tom Ramsey (441), Dennis Dummit (289) and Gary Beban (243).

GASTON GREEN HIS RUSHING STATISTICS GAME BY GAME FOR 1986 SEASON

Opponent Att Yds Avg TD UCLA Result Oklahoma 13 40 3.1 0 Lost, 38-3 San Diego State 16 131 8.2 3 Won, 45-14 CS Long Beach* Won, 41-23 Arizona State 6 5 0.8 0 Lost, 16-9 Arizona 19 78 4.1 2 Won, 32-25 California 21 134 6.4 0 Won, 36-10 Washington State 24 162 6.8 2 Won, 54-16 Oregon State 21 123 5.9 0 Won, 49-0 Stanford 26 142 5.5 3 Lost, 28-23 Washington 35 100 2.9 0 Tied, 17-17 USC 39 224 5.7 4 Won, 45-25 Totals (10 games) 220 1139 5.2 14

*Did not play, toe injury