UCLA’s Home Streak on Line : College football: Cal ended an 18-game string last year, but the Bears haven’t beaten the Bruins in L.A. since 1971.

When UCLA quarterback Tommy Maddox reflects on last year’s game against California, he has mixed emotions.

On the downside, of course, was the 38-31 loss at Berkeley, ending an 18-game Bruin winning streak over Cal.

On the upside was UCLA’s comeback after trailing, 38-14, in the fourth quarter. And the Bruins were in a position to win or tie when Maddox was sacked and lost the ball at the Cal 14-yard line with less than five minutes to play.

It was a watershed game for the Bears, who went on to have only their second winning season in 11 years and play in a bowl game for the first time since 1979.

The rejuvenated Bears, unbeaten in three games, will play the Bruins (2-1) Saturday at the Rose Bowl, and another streak is on the line.

Cal hasn’t beaten UCLA in Los Angeles since 1971, although the Bruins later forfeited a victory in 1977 for using an ineligible player.

More meaningful is that this is the first time since 1952 that Cal has come into Los Angeles to play either UCLA or USC with an unbeaten team.

For the record, USC beat Cal, 10-0, in 1952.

“Looking back on last year’s game with Cal, we went out in the first half and were totally unprepared,” said Maddox, noting that Cal led, 27-10, at halftime. “We went out flat and got run over.”

“In the second half, we did some things successfully and scored in a hurry, but myself mostly, we didn’t come up with the big play when we needed to.

“Any time you play that poorly and then have a good chance to win and don’t come up with it, it really hurts and you have to do some soul-searching.”

Cal’s players were exuberant after ending UCLA’s winning streak, and quarterback Mike Pawlawski even taunted the Bruins during the game with some finger-wagging at their bench.

The postgame celebration, which included some jeering of the Bruins as they left the stadium on their bus, didn’t bother Maddox.

“As a player, you can say, ‘They’re going crazy over there,’ ” Maddox said, “but you have to look at it from their standpoint. Probably all they heard about is how long we had beaten them. You can hardly blame them. It just made the loss (for us) more difficult to take. “It’s almost like they broke the chains and now they can move forward.”

Maddox said he had been tentative in his approach to the Tennessee game Sept. 14, which the Bruins lost, 30-16. He was more freewheeling last Thursday night when he passed for 303 yards and two touchdowns in a 37-12 victory at San Diego State.

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said he wasn’t aware of his quarterback’s assessment of himself.

“We talked about it,” Maddox said. “I told him (Donahue) how I felt, and he agreed. It wasn’t one of those things saying, ‘I’m going to do this and I don’t care what anybody thinks.’ I think he understood where I was coming from, and we had a very positivetalk.

“And Thursday night, he saw what I meant. During the game, he was smiling and I was smiling. Everyone has their own way to go about games. If I’m not having fun out there, maybe it’s not worth it to get your head knocked off.”