Velasco Feels High After the Kick, but Low After the Result

As the ball rose toward the goalpost, somebody grabbed UCLA Coach Terry Donahue and said, breathlessly: “My God, he made it.”

No, he didn’t.

Alfredo Velasco’s 54-yard field goal attempt hit the crossbar and bounced back, landing harmlessly in the end zone to allow USC to escape with a 10-10 tie Saturday.

“That’s about as bad as it’s ever going to get,” Velasco said, standing amid a crush of reporters in the UCLA locker room. “When I first kicked it, I really thought it was in.

“I smacked it about as good as I could and it was going through the uprights. I was already jumping up and down.

“You know, you get into position to win the game like that--a kicker’s dream--and it hits the bar . . . Disbelief. Absolute disbelief.”

The kick typified a frustrating season for Velasco.

Just last week, Donahue said: “If you want to see one little thread that has been intertwined with our demise, you’d have to point very, very emphatically to the failure of our kicking game.”

In a five-game losing streak, UCLA’s longest in 26 years:

--Velasco pulled a 36-yard field goal attempt wide to the left in the second quarter of a 42-7 loss to Arizona--his first miss inside 40 yards in 31 career attempts.

--He pushed a 40-yard attempt wide to the right in the first quarter of an 18-17 loss to Oregon State.

--He pushed a 34-yard attempt wide to the right in the second quarter of a 28-27 loss to Washington.

--He had a 37-yard attempt blocked in the third quarter of a 17-14 loss to Stanford.

--With UCLA leading, 20-14, in the third quarter last week, he had a 44-yard attempt blocked in a 38-20 loss to Oregon.

Velasco, successful on 20 of 24 field goal attempts two seasons ago and 17 of 19 last season, made only 14 of 22 as a senior.

“It’s been a rough season,” he said. “You go into your senior year, and you have a lot of expectations after having a couple of good seasons--it was just a turnaround from everything I expected.”

But, when UCLA’s Rocen Keeton recovered a fumble by USC’s Leroy Holt at the Bruins’ 12-yard line, and Bruin quarterback Bret Johnson then completed a 52-yard pass to Scott Miller putting UCLA in USC territory with less than two minutes left, Velasco had a chance to redeem himself.

His 49-yard field goal with 13:48 left had tied the game and now, with UCLA at the Trojans’ 36-yard line, he’d probably have a chance to win it.

“We hit that big pass and I thought we only needed a few more (yards) and we’d be within range,” Velasco said.

Three plays later, though, UCLA was at the 37.

On third-and-eight from the 34, tailback Shawn Wills took a handoff from Johnson, attempted to circle the right end and was chased down by safety Cleveland Colter for a three-yard loss.

“If I had just kept it inside instead of bouncing out, he would have made (the field goal attempt),” said Wills, who was consoled by Donahue as he walked off the field. “He would have had that extra yard.

“I chose to bounce it outside. Now, I’m thinking I should have kept it inside. I’d at least have gotten one yard or so, or half a yard. Maybe that would have helped.”

Said Donahue: “It was a judgment (mistake). We called a sprint draw play, which is designed to start to the right and then cut back into the teeth of the defense. The play is never designed to go sideways or to the outside.

“We were trying to get two or three yards. We didn’t need a long run. We just wanted to get the ball to the 30 or the 32.”

Instead, it sat on the 37 with two seconds remaining.

Donahue considered bringing on Brad Daluiso, who kicks off but has never attempted a field goal for the Bruins, or having one of his quarterbacks--Johnson or backup Jim Bonds--throw a pass into the end zone.

But when Donahue asked Velasco if he could make the 54-yard attempt, Velasco told him that he thought he could. Before Saturday, Velasco’s longest this season was a 48-yarder against California, but last season he made a 53-yarder against Oregon and a 50-yarder against Arizona.

In the wind and cold last month at Corvallis, Ore., he missed a 55-yard attempt that would have beaten Oregon State.

But this was different.

The air was calm.

The conditions were right.

As he trotted out onto the field, Velasco was confident.

“I knew if I really made (good) contact, it would have a chance to go through,” he said.

He made no major adjustments.

“I just tried to kick it as normally as possible,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to do too much differently other than--obviously--put some more power behind the ball. And when I hit it, I really thought it was in.”

Velasco ran after the ball, celebrating as he went.

“I was skipping along with the linemen because we’ve got to follow a long field goal like that to cover it,” he said. “And when it hit the bar, I looked down. I just could not believe it.”

In practice, he said, his kicks frequently hit the goal posts, but never before had he bounced one off the crossbar in a game.

“It’s been a tough year for us and I’ve been implicated,” Velasco said.

With a more fortunate bounce Saturday, he might have been immortalized.