Bruin-Gate a Dirty Trick Against Cal

California had a plan Saturday that would have been an affront to the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley. It was a non-attack that only a conservative Republican would love.

When UCLA had the ball, it had a leftist bent. Radical, perhaps. Throw an occasional bomb.

And then there was the Swinging Gate.

“It’s a play I’ve had around for years,” UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said after the Bruins used a bit of trickery in scoring the first of three touchdowns by Jim McElroy, and added a dose of stout defense in beating California, 35-17, at the Rose Bowl for their sixth consecutive victory.

“It’s called the Swinging Gate,” Toledo said. “I think it closed the door on Cal.”

It did.

The play requires the right time and place, and it also helps if the opposition is in a state of slumber.

Cal was.

The time was the second quarter, and the place was the Cal 23-yard line. Skip Hicks had just run for two yards, and the ball had just been spotted by umpire John Pemberton when quarterback Cade McNown sauntered to the line, reached down and tossed the ball back to McElroy.

The entire UCLA offensive line was left of the ball, for all the world stumbling about, and imminently available to block for McElroy, who had to beat only one Bear defender to score and give the 13th-ranked Bruins (6-2, 4-1 in the Pacific 10) a 21-3 lead.

“Coach showed us the play when he ran it at Texas A&M;,” McElroy said. “He ran it with Leeland McElroy, and if Leeland could score, this McElroy could score.”

“It was a nice touch,” Golden Bear Coach Tom Holmoe said. “You see some zany things once in a while. Our guys were looking to the sidelines, and they rushed to the line of scrimmage. We lost focus and you’ve got to give credit to them for calling us on that.”

It was the first time UCLA has run the Swinging Gate since the 1995 Aloha Bowl, when Toledo was offensive coordinator under Terry Donahue and chafing at the prospect of running trick plays. Now the boss, Toledo has no qualms about calling for trickery, as he also did in the third quarter when McNown quick-kicked for 67 yards on third and 24 from the UCLA 25.

In addition to being the center for the Swinging Gate and punter on the quick kick, McNown completed 11 of 20 passes for 259 yards and two touchdowns, on plays of 56 and 58 yards to McElroy.

The Bruins also got touchdowns from DuVal Hicks, whose 18-yard return of a punt blocked by Tod McBride in the first quarter generated a 7-0 lead; and from Skip Hicks, whose one-yard run made it 14-3.

It was his 17th touchdown of the season.

Cal (2-5, 0-4) countered by running the ball on 16 of its first 17 plays and throwing only two passes the first quarter.

The idea was to play keep-away, and not let the Bruin offense--which led the nation in scoring at 43.3 points a game--get its licks in.

“We just weren’t going to get into a shootout with them,” Holmoe said.

Instead, the Bears found themselves down, 21-3, at halftime and with their best receiver, Bobby Shaw, gasping for breath after falling on the ball in the second quarter.

Said Toledo: “We were seventh in the conference in rush defense coming in, and we knew they’ve got a couple of pretty good running backs. And we knew they didn’t want to take a chance of getting [Justin] Vedder sacked.

“We felt they would try to establish the run, and they had a lot of patience. But, yeah, I was surprised they ran the ball that long.”

Cal’s conservatism lasted into the second quarter, at which time Vedder faded to pass and found UCLA’s Brendon Ayanbadejo in his face for a sack and loss of four yards.

Another run, this by Marcus Fields, gained nothing, and Ayanbadejo was in Vedder’s face for another sack on third down.

Chastened, the Bears put the passing game back in the bag until late in the first half, by which time the “Gate” had swung shut on them.

Vedder, a junior college transfer from Saddleback, completed 13 of 29 passes for 171 yards and a touchdown. Nine of those completions--and the first six--and 122 of those yards were turned in by Shaw, aching ribs and all.

Cal came back with a 20-yard run by Fields to cut the margin to 21-10, but could counter the two long McNown-to-McElroy touchdown passes in the third quarter only with Vedder’s 18-yard scoring throw to Bruce Pierre.

With the victory, before a homecoming crowd of 52,858, the Bruins qualified for a bowl game. There were scouts from the Holiday on hand, and the Sun and Aloha remain in the picture, as does the Rose.

Three games remain for UCLA, and Toledo put them and the Bruins’ first eight in perspective. Particularly the 4-0 record during October.

“I told [the players] that if we won in October, we were guaranteed a winning season, and those six wins also qualify us for a bowl game,” he said. “Championships are won in November.”

The first step is Saturday at Stanford.

Around the Nation

* MICHIGAN CLASH

No. 5 Michigan played it close to the vest, but the Wolverines showed their superiority over No. 15 Michigan State, 23-7. C4

* NEAR UPSET

Washington State had to stop a two-point conversion try in overtime to escape with a wild 35-34 victory over Arizona. C6

OTHER SCORES

NO. 1 NEBRASKA: 35

KANSAS: 0

*

NO. 3 FLORIDA STATE: 47

VIRGINIA: 21

*

MISSOURI: 51 (2OT)

NO. 12 OKLAHOMA STATE: 50

*

NO. 18 IOWA: 62

INDIANA: 0