A very happy

Published: Monday, October 31, 1994

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.