Lewis Steals the Show From Maddox : Arizona: Wildcat cornerback got burned early, but he made the play when it counted most.

For most of Saturday afternoon, Arizona defensive back Darryl Lewis found himself face down in the grass of the Rose Bowl, where he had a clear view of some UCLA receiver running the other way with the football.

Twice that player was UCLA flanker Scott Miller, who caught passes in front of Lewis, got away and ran for touchdowns of 40 and 32 yards.

But Arizona Coach Dick Tomey wasn’t worried about Lewis.

“There are only two kinds of defensive backs: those who have been beat, and those who are going to get beat,” Tomey said.

Lewis, fitting nicely into both categories, picked himself off the ground and made the defensive play of the game Saturday.

Who was surprised? Not Wildcat free safety Jeff Hammerschmidt.

“You can’t keep picking on him,” Hammerschmidt said. “When they kept dropping back to pass, I smiled because I knew Darryl was getting mad.”

With less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, Lewis got even. He leaped in front of UCLA split end Reggie Moore, intercepted a pass by quarterback Tommy Maddox and quickly moved down the sideline for a 70-yard tiebreaking touchdown that defeated UCLA, 28-21, before 50,156 stunned fans and one relieved cornerback.

“I gave up some, but I got him back,” Lewis said. “You think about that, every defensive back thinks about it, but you just got to let the game come to you. Then when it happens, it’s unbelievable.”

Maddox felt much the same way: “I just made a terrible mistake and it cost us the game.”

Maddox said he was neither throwing at Lewis nor trying to avoid him, that often Lewis just happened to be defending his intended receivers.

“Other than that last one, he didn’t hurt us much,” Maddox said ruefully.

No one laid as much as a finger on Lewis, a converted running back who carried Arizona’s Rose Bowl chances with him and cemented his own reputation as one of the premier defensive backs in the nation.

He is 5-feet-9 and 188 pounds, but the Lewis Legend is growing even if he is not. A senior from West Covina, Lewis is rated No. 2 in The Sporting News’ rankings of candidates for the Jim Thorpe Award given to the nation’s top defensive back.

In a 22-17 victory over Oregon, Lewis had two interceptions, ran one back 52 yards for a touchdown and tackled quarterback Bill Musgrave at the goal line on fourth and one to end the game.

After Maddox picked on him and Miller beat him twice for touchdowns, Lewis was hoping for a chance to redeem himself.

Maddox had moved the Bruins from their 11-yard line to a first down at the Arizona 36 as they went for the go-ahead score. From there, Maddox threw toward Moore in the right flat, but the ball sort of floated. Lewis jumped in front of Moore and the race was on.

It was won by the little guy with the 4.5 speed in the 40-yard-dash.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” Lewis said. “It looked like he was throwing behind the receiver, like he was trying to place it, like he wasn’t trying to make any mistakes.”

After grabbing the football, one thought crossed Lewis’ mind in the moments before he crossed the goal: “Run my fastest.”

And just like that, the Wildcats had their first victory against UCLA in the Rose Bowl, where the Bruins began playing home games in 1982.

Actually, Arizona has won games in the Rose Bowl before, beating Occidental in 1929 and 1932 and Cal Tech in 1930.

Arizona’s first victory in the Rose Bowl in 58 years was produced by the team of Malauulu and Lewis. Of Samoan descent, George Malauulu is the Wildcats’ part-time quarterback from Carson.

Malauulu, pronounced Mah-la-OOH-lu, passed for 122 yards and led Arizona with 52 yards rushing, including a six-yard touchdown run in which he vaulted into the end zone.

On that play, Malauulu was turned around in midair when he took a hit on his helmet, perhaps narrowly avoiding a headache that could have prevented him from wearing one of his beloved hats.

“Collecting hats is my hobby,” Malauulu said.

So far, there are 65 hats in the Malauulu collection. The Arizona game plan seems clear now. Malauulu collects hats and Lewis collects interceptions.