High-Octane Bruins Race Past Houston

UCLA Coach Bob Toledo promised the Bruins wouldn’t suffer a letdown against Houston. He was so right.

Cade McNown passed for 297 yards and four touchdowns and Skip Hicks ran for two scores in the first half Saturday as the 22nd-ranked Bruins rolled to a 66-10 victory over the outmanned Cougars before 38,004 in the Rose Bowl.

UCLA (3-2) scored two touchdowns in the opening two minutes and six touchdowns and a field goal on its nine first-half possessions to take a 45-3 lead in the final nonconference game of the season for both teams.

The Bruins have scored 172 points in winning their last three games, starting with a well-publicized 66-3 victory over Texas last month.

UCLA is averaging 46 points a game, while the Cougars (1-4), who committed six turnovers--five in the first half--have allowed an average of 44.2 points.

Neither McNown, who completed 11 of 14 passes without an interception, nor Hicks, who gained 31 yards in 14 carries, played in the second half.

McNown moved into second place on UCLA’s career passing list, ahead of Troy Aikman and Tommy Maddox and behind only Tom Ramsey, while completing seven of eight passes for 184 yards and two scores in the first quarter.

A junior who has been UCLA’s starting quarterback since early in his freshman year, McNown has thrown 97 consecutive passes without an interception and has 11 touchdown passes with only two interceptions in 138 attempts this season.

McNown threw touchdown passes of 31 and 15 yards to freshman Brian Poli-Dixon, a 40-yarder to Danny Farmer and a 46-yarder to Jim McElroy. Poli-Dixon had caught just one pass in UCLA’s first four games.

Hicks scored on runs of two and three yards, giving him 15 touchdowns this year, and Chris Sailer added a 42-yard field goal.

Wasswa Serwanga set up three of the touchdowns by sacking Jason McKinley twice and forcing fumbles that UCLA recovered in Houston territory, and intercepting a pass by McKinley and returning it 28 yards.

Sailer’s field goal came after an interception by Eric Whitfield.

Sebastian Villarreal kicked a 44-yard field goal in the first quarter to provide Houston, a 25-point underdog coming in, with its only points until the fourth period.

Freshman Drew Bennett threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Neufeld late in the third quarter, and Michael Wiley intercepted a pass by McKinley and returned it 24 yards for a touchdown 1:29 later to make it 59-3.

Jay McGuire, who gained 74 yards in 14 carries, scored Houston’s only touchdown on a one-yard run with 9:01 remaining in the game. UCLA’s Jermaine Lewis scored on a 28-yard run with 2:35 left to complete the scoring.