A very happy

A very happy

homecoming

Bruins snap six-

game skid with

31-30 squeaker

over Stanford

By Scott Yamaguchi

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

They should have known better. Stanford really should have
realized that when the game was on the line, to single-cover J.J.
Stokes with a 5-foot-9-inch defensive back was a foolish exhibition
of overconfidence.

The Cardinal (2-5-1 overall, 1-4-0 in the Pacific-10), however,
learned the hard way Saturday night at the Rose Bowl when the
6-foot-6 All-American Stokes went over cornerback Leroy Pruitt for
a two-point conversion pass that gave UCLA (3-6, 1-5) a 31-30
victory.

"That was our blunder," Stanford head coach Bill Walsh said of
Stanford’s poor coverage. "We just didn’t handle it well. We should
have double covered Stokes ­ he is just a great player."

Stokes’ reception in the right corner of the end zone capped a
comeback that helped the Bruins overcome a 30-20 fourth quarter
deficit. It was made possible by Skip Hick’s seven-yard touchdown
run. Bjorn Merten had brought the score to 30-23 when he split the
uprights on a 38-yard field goal attempt, and Hick’s touchdown left
UCLA one-point away from a tie, two-points from the win. The choice
was obvious.

The Bruins opted immediately to go for two, but when Stokes was
double-covered, UCLA quarterback Wayne Cook called a timeout, and a
little eavesdropping went a long way for Stokes.

"Actually, when they double covered me, we called the timeout
and I heard the safety tell the outside linebacker, ‘you’re not
supposed to be over there,’ so I went to the sideline and told
Wayne and the coaches and we kept the play on," Stokes said. "When
he threw the two-point pass, I didn’t see it. I just grabbed for it
and it fell into my arms."

The conversion, however, came with three minutes remaining, and
with record-breaking quarterback Steve Stenstrom guiding the
Stanford offense, the game was far from over.

Merten’s kickoff sailed out of bounds, and Stenstrom led the
Cardinal to the UCLA 20, completing a fourth-and-17 pass to Justin
Armour along the way.

"After we converted the fourth and 17, I thought it was a done
deal at that point," Stenstrom said. "But field goals are not a
sure thing, and we found that out this year."

Indeed, Stanford learned another hard lesson when junior
placekicker Eric Abrams trotted onto the field with 20 seconds
remaining in the game. Abrams had accounted for all of Stanford’s
second half points with field goals from 21 and 22 yards out, and
this 32-yarder would have just about guaranteed the Cardinal its
second victory in as many weeks.

"I knew for about 3 1/2 minutes that it would come down to me,"
Abrams said. "I felt like it was a good kick ­ it was better
than all the other ones I made."

But the kick was just barely wide-left, and after Cook dropped
to his knee on first down, UCLA was left to celebrate with what
remained of the crowd of 42,529.

"It was a beautifully kicked ball, and I thought he made it,"
Walsh said. "I celebrated for a second, but the noise didn’t sound
right. UCLA’s crowd should have been quiet, and it wasn’t."

The Rose Bowl crowd was not only noisy, it was cheering,
something it had rarely done through a six-game UCLA losing streak.
Booing had not been uncommon during the skid, and for a while
Saturday, it appeared that the Bruins would hear more of the
same.

Until Merten missed an extra point attempt with 7:25 remaining
in the second quarter, the UCLA offense had been relatively
productive in trading leads with Stanford.

After Stenstrom connected with Armour for a 17 yard touchdown
strike on the Cardinal’s first possession, Cook led the Bruins 75
yards in seven plays, the last of which was a 35-yard touchdown
pass to Kevin Jordan.

Abrams put Stanford ahead, 10-7, with a 27 yard field goal, and
Cook answered with a 23 yard touchdown pass to Stokes ­ his
first of the season.

The teams traded punts, and after Stanford running back Anthony
Bookman­who finished with 138 yards on 21 carries­ scored
on an eight yard run, UCLA put together a 70 yard drive that
culminated in the one-yard touchdown run by Hicks that set up
Merten’s missed PAT.

Brian Manning dove into the endzone to catch a 35 yard Stenstrom
pass and score for Stanford on its next possession, giving the
Cardinal a 24-20 halftime advantage.

"In the first half, we just couldn’t stop them," UCLA head coach
Terry Donahue said. "Our defensive coaches did a good job of fixing
what was broken (at halftime), but in the second half, our offense
was self-destructing while the defense kept the game close."

UCLA’s offense failed to produce any points in the third
quarter, and the Bruins remained in the game because of a stellar
defensive effort. Stanford was inside UCLA’s five-yard line twice,
and both times the Cardinal was forced to call upon Abrams.

"If they had scored touchdowns a couple of times when they only
got field goals, they would have won the game," Donahue said. "But
that didn’t happen. Our defense rose to the occasion and stopped
them."

Nevertheless, Stanford rolled up 536 yards of total offense,
while UCLA had 472. Stenstrom alone passed for 408 yards, the most
ever allowed by UCLA, and Armour caught 11 passes for 220
yards.

Cook was 19 of 25 for 296 yards, a career best. Eight of his
passes were to Kevin Jordan, who finished with 146 yards, while
Stokes caught five balls for 94 yards. Sophomore tailback Sharmon
Shah gained 110 yards on 18 carries, and Hicks ran 10 times for 48
yards.