Big chance for Forbath goes awry

LAS VEGAS -- Kai Forbath had waited all season for a chance at a field goal everyone would remember.

He finally got that chance Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium, where he lined up a 28-yard attempt with three seconds left to play and UCLA trailing Brigham Young by a point in the Las Vegas Bowl.

And the result will be remembered, only for all the wrong reasons.

Two Cougar paws rose out of the left side of the line and batted away the game-winning attempt, preserving a 17-16 victory for BYU.

“It’s disappointing, especially because I was looking forward to that kick all year and it comes in the last game and it came down to that,” Forbath said. “Any kicker wants a game-winning kick. It’s tough that that was the first one and it had to end like that.”

The kick appeared a formality.

Forbath, a redshirt freshman, had connected from 50 yards a mere six minutes 21 seconds earlier that pulled UCLA to within a point at 17-16.

In the second quarter, he made one from 52 yards to cut BYU’s lead to 10-6 and he scored the game’s first points with a 22-yard field goal.

The 50- and 52-yard field goals gave him a UCLA school record five career field goals of 50 or more yards.

So, when UCLA took possession at its two-yard line with just over two minutes to play and trailing by a point, the offense needed only to get to the BYU 35 to be inside Forbath’s range.

They did better, getting to the Cougars 11 with three seconds to play.

“You figure he’s perfectly set up right there,” special teams coach Gary DeLoach said.

Not only that, but no opponent had blocked a UCLA field-goal attempt all season, so there was no reason to believe the Bruins wouldn’t be leaving Las Vegas with a victory.

“That was a little chip shot,” Forbath said. “I wasn’t worried about missing that kick at all. Having one blocked was not on my mind at all. I thought we’re going in there and the game is over.”

Unfortunately, it was, because Eathyn Manumaleuna and Brett Denney penetrated the left side of the line and each got a piece of the kick.

“We knew he was a good kicker, but we just couldn’t let him stand in there and get a free kick,” Denney said.

Forbath said the snap was good, the hold was clean and that he simply blasted away as he normally does. It’s just that after the first thump, there was another he wasn’t used to hearing.

“They came hard and I don’t know what happened,” he said. “It felt good right when it came off.”

BYU Coach Bronco Mendenhall said the plan was to send all 11 players after the kick in a “desperation block.”

It left a hopeless feeling in the UCLA locker room.

“It was heartbreaking,” DeLoach said. “I mean, it’s tough to watch that happen, but it’s part of life.”

Forbath said he hoped to get a chance at redemption.

“There are a lot of seniors who will remember this game for a long time,” he said. “I wish it could have been different, mostly for them.”

At least one senior, however, said the blocked kick was not the reason the Bruins lost.

“That’s not Kai’s fault,” linebacker Christian Taylor said. “He’s done a great job all year and we wouldn’t have been in the game if he didn’t bury two 50-yarders to begin with.”

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peter.yoon@latimes.com