UCLA holds off BYU

Sep 9, 2007, 2:59 GMT

Los Angeles, CA - Tom Blake jumped on a key fourth-quarter fumble by Max Hall, and 13th-ranked UCLA held off a pesky BYU squad, 27-17, at the Rose Bowl.

Bruins quarterback Ben Olson had a shaky outing, completing just 13-of-28 passes for 126 yards with one interception for UCLA (2-0).

Kahlil Bell shouldered a fair portion of the ground game, but was helped out by a strong effort from senior running back Chris Markey. Bell carried 16 times for 79 yards and a touchdown, while Markey also had 16 carries for 50 yards and a score.

Hall completed 30-of-52 passes for 391 yards with a pair of touchdowns and an interception for BYU (1-1), which had an 11-game win streak halted.

Austin Collie led all receivers with seven catches for 79 yards and two TDs, while Harvey Unga paced the ground attack with a paltry five carries for 28 yards.

Trailing 20-3 at the break, BYU came storming back in the third quarter. On his team's first drive, Max hooked up with three different receivers, marching all the way down to the Bruins' 26. A sack set the Cougars back to the 30, but the QB hooked up with Andrew George on a 28-yard connection. Two straight rush attempts resulted in no gain, and a false start penalty on third-and-goal put BYU five yards from the goal line before Collie made a nifty over-the-shoulder grab in the end zone with 8:19 remaining.

Suddenly riding momentum, the Cougars' Kayle Buchanan pulled off an interception to set his club up for another score. Unga scurried for a 24-yard gain on first down, and Max once again found Collie for a 16-yard TD pass with 6:04 left in the third to cut it to 20-17.

The Bruins, who looked like a completely different team after halftime, finally started to pull it together defensively. BYU was forced to punt on its next possession, and in a drive spanning the third and fourth quarters, lost the ball just 19 yards from the end zone on a fumble by Hall that was pounced on by Blake.

The teams traded punts before the Bruins put game away, marching 45 yards on 10 plays, effectively chewing up the game clock. A three-yard touchdown run by Markey with 1:12 remaining accounted for the final margin.

'Offensively, I was really pleased how this team responded when you had to put points on the board at the end of the game,' said Bruins head coach Karl Dorrell. 'We finished the game by icing down the clock and getting seven points. Those are good things to build upon going into this season. There's no question that the team we played this week is a very good football team. I thought it was a good, hard-fought win. Our team handled adversity late in the game, and it showed what they area all about. I was really pleased with how we responded.'

Both sides looked sluggish at the start, but it was UCLA that put up the game's first points, as Kai Forbath drilled a 37-yard field goal with 3:30 left in the first quarter.

The Bruins defense tightened the screws and quickly made it a 10-0 game, as Trey Brown picked off a wayward pass by Hall on the Cougars' ensuing possession and sprinted 56 yards to the end zone.

The rout looked to be on at that point, as the Bruins lit up the scoreboard with a four-play drive in the second, bolstered by Bell's deceptive speed. The junior tailback carried all four times, the first a 26-yard run that put UCLA on the Cougars' 21. A 17-yard burst put them down to the four, and after Bell was turned away on 1st-and-goal, he capped the drive with a four-yard touchdown run at 11:01.

Forbath tacked on a 40-yard field goal with 3:28 left in the half, making it 20-0. The kick was preceeded by another BYU turnover, as Chris Horton stripped Vic So'oto after a 10-yard completion and returned it 21 yards. The Bruins got down to the BYU 26, but couldn't convert on 3rd-and-6 before Forbath split the uprights.

The Cougars' offense finally started to click, as Max orchestrated an 11-play, 27-yard drive that culminated with Mitch Payne's 25-yard field goal with five ticks remaining before the half.

'I like their heart,' BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said of his team. 'I like their willingness and their fight, but our execution in making the critical plays and doing what we're supposed to do wasn't good enough to win today.'

Game Notes

BYU's 11-game winning streak was the second-longest in the nation behind Boise State entering play on Saturday...The Cougars also had a three-game win streak against the Pac-10 conference halted...The Bruins lead the overall series, which dates back to 1983, by a 7-1 count. UCLA has won the last seven meetings, but had not played the Cougars since winning 23-9 in the 1995 season at Provo.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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