Falling down
Football drops fifth straight to Cal Bears, falls to Pac-10
cellar
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
BERKELEY — Yes, the urgency has finally turned to panic.
For the fourth consecutive week, the UCLA football team found
itself on the embarrassing end of a lopsided score  this time
a 26-7 loss to California Saturday at Cal’s Memorial Stadium Â
and still, the Bruins have yet to find an answer.
"We’re just not making the plays on offense or on defense," UCLA
head coach Terry Donahue said. "Everything seems so hard for us
right now."
Things are very hard for the Bruins, and with an 0-3 record in
Pacific-10 play, it would seem that a return trip to the Rose Bowl
on New Year’s Day is almost impossible. But this game, against a
Golden Bear squad which had already lost to San Diego State and
Hawaii, was supposed to mark the beginning of a turnaround for UCLA
 an end to the three-game skid in which the Bruins were
outscored 107-31.
In fact, following his team’s 37-10 loss to Washington last
week, Donahue pointed to the intensity with which UCLA had played
the Huskies. That, he said, was an indication that the Bruins were
on the brink of snapping the streak.
Instead, for every stride made against Washington, UCLA (2-4
overall, 0-3 in the Pac-10) took two in the opposite direction
against Cal (3-2, 2-0). The Bruins, who entered the game as the
least-penalized team in the conference, were flagged nine times for
96 yards.
Perhaps it was fitting, then, that Bruin kicker Bjorn Merten’s
opening kickoff was followed immediately by a 15-yard dead-ball
foul on UCLA, and that on Cal’s final drive, while the Bears were
being forced to punt on fourth down, the Bruins were called for a
defensive holding penalty that gave Cal a first down and allowed
for the clock to be run out.
"We just made a lot of bad decisions in terms of blocking in the
back, and in terms of holding," Donahue said.
Penalties, however, were not the only disheartening aspect of
the game for UCLA. If it was not a penalty that stalled the Bruin’s
offense, it was a turnover. The three quarterbacks that played
combined for four interceptions, two of which led to Cal
points.
Following Paul Guidry’s touchdown-saving interception of Cal
quarterback Dave Barr’s pass in the end zone on Cal’s first drive,
the Bruins were forced to punt. The Bears received the ball on
their own 18, and after eight plays, Brian Longwell was wide left
on a 52-yard field goal attempt.
UCLA took over on its own 35, but on a third and ten from the
50, starting quarterback Wayne Cook threw into the hands of Cal’s
Artis Houston, who returned the interception 52-yards to the UCLA
11. Three plays later, Cal was on the scoreboard with a four-yard
scoring strike from Barr to tight end Tony Gonzalez with 2:53
remaining in the first quarter.
Cook returned to the field and seemed to redeem himself,
engineering an 80-yard drive that culminated in what ended up as
UCLA’s only score, when Daron Washington burst up the middle and
ran 26-yards into the end zone.
After punts by both teams, Longwell split the uprights on a
38-yard attempt, and UCLA took the ball on its own 20. On the
second play of the series, however, Cook was stripped of the ball
on a broken play, and Chad Sauter recovered for the Bruins in their
own end zone  a safety.
"There’s not a guy in the locker room that likes football right
now," Cook said. "It’s just not fun when you lose four in a
row."
Darren Schager’s free kick was returned to the Cal 40, and with
Barr knocked out of the game with a broken collarbone, Cal back-up
quarterback Kerry McGonigal led the Bears 60-yards in six plays,
the last of which was a 20-yard touchdown pass to Iheanyi
Uwaezuoke, and Cal entered the locker room with a 19-7 halftime
advantage.
"I think that series before the end of the first half was huge,"
Donahue said. "When you’re a team like us struggling right now, you
don’t have the same response as a team on a roll, making plays. It
becomes a downer.
"We just gave Cal all the momentum and they made the plays."
Both teams were scoreless in the third quarter, and when UCLA
took the ball on its own 5-yard line with 30 seconds left in the
third quarter, Donahue benched Cook in favor of sophomore Ryan
Fien.
"When you’re not making plays, the focal point becomes the
quarterback," Donahue said. "I wanted to see if a change would help
us. Obviously, it didn’t have much impact."
It had an impact, albeit undesirable. On his third play of the
game, Fien dropped back and threw to Bryan Adams, who was hit
immediately. The ball bounced off of Adams and into the hands of
Cal safety Dante DePaola, who returned the interception 25-yards
for the Bears’ final touchdown.
Fien was intercepted again on the Bruins’ next possession, and
after two punts by Cal and one by UCLA, third-string quarterback
Rob Walker entered the game for the Bruins, only to be intercepted
on his third pass.
On the day, Cook completed 9 of his 15 attempts for 92 yards,
while Fien was 3-of-5 for 28 yards. Tailback Sharmon Shah rushed 17
times for 83 yards, and Skip Hicks ran the ball six times for 25
yards. As usual, flanker Kevin Jordan and linebacker Donnie Edwards
turned in outstanding performances for UCLA. Jordan caught five
passes for 70 yards, and Edwards had ten tackles, including a sack
that dropped Barr for an eight-yard loss. Inside linebacker Shane
Jasper led the defense with 12 tackles, including two for
losses.
For the Bears, Barr was 7 of 12 for 116 yards, and McGonigal was
6 of 9 for 82 yards. Reynard Rutherford ran the ball 22 times for
98 yards, and Uwaezoke caught four balls for 74 yards.
While the loss was the fourth straight for UCLA, it was the
fifth consecutive time that the Bruins have fallen to California,
making the Bears the first conference team in 60 years to beat UCLA
five times in a row. Donahue fell to 14-5 versus California.