Bears victorious over Bruins, 45-26
Cal running back Shane Vereen shakes off the UCLA defense in the second quarter of Saturday’s football game at the Rose Bowl. Vereen finished with a game-high 154 yards on 17 carries, including one rushing touchdown. The sophomore from Valencia led a punishing Cal rush attack, which ran for a total of 289 yards.
By Blair Angulo
Oct. 18, 2009 10:39 p.m.
The UCLA football team’s locker room was no place for headshakes or shoulder shrugs Saturday.
Despite another disappointing Bruin loss ““ this one a 45-26 drubbing at the hands of California ““ the mood was different.
Following the latest defeat, what had recently become a customary reaction for UCLA players turned into something more concrete.
The Bruins no longer sought answers ““ they were simply angry.
“I’m just mad,” sophomore safety Rahim Moore said. “Our effort wasn’t there.”
UCLA, once considered to have a premier defensive unit, allowed a backbreaking 494 yards of total offense to a Cal team that had lost its previous two games by a combined score of 72-6.
Cal tailbacks Shane Vereen and Jahvid Best did most of the damage, combining for 256 rushing yards on 35 carries and giving the Golden Bears their first conference victory.
“That was the first time that our defense looked like they were being exposed,” coach Rick Neuheisel said afterward.
Vereen, the more than capable complement to Cal’s All-America candidate Best, proved his worth by averaging more than nine yards per carry. He was the latest tailback to break out against the Bruins, rushing for a career-high 154 yards.
After struggling to contain Stanford’s Toby Gerhart and Oregon’s LaMichael James in consecutive weeks, UCLA’s tackling was suspect yet again.
Cal struck gold on its first series, driving the ball 80 yards on seven plays for the early lead. Vereen sealed the drive with a seemingly simple 42-yard touchdown run.
“Shane (Vereen) was huge (Saturday),” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. “He made play after play. He left it on the field.”
Best, meanwhile, lost a combined 32 yards on a number of his rushes but still managed to surpass the century mark thanks to an electrifying 93-yard touchdown run in which he avoided a handful of Bruin defenders.
“They’re both very talented runners,” sophomore safety Tony Dye said of Best and Vereen. “I saw them as one back.”
The 93-yard dash, which gave the Golden Bears a 28-14 lead in the second quarter, was the longest of Best’s career and third longest in Cal’s 123-year history.
“Cal was making plays,” Dye said. “Their running backs ran well, and we were missing tackles. They just beat us.”
Cal quarterback Kevin Riley also managed a stellar afternoon against the Bruins, going 14-of-23 for 205 yards passing. He threw three touchdowns, the third giving the Golden Bears (4-2, 1-2 Pac-10) 35 points with 46 seconds left in the first half. The Bruins (3-3, 0-3) had not allowed more than 24 points in any of their previous five contests.
“It was not something I anticipated,” Neuheisel said about the first-half letdown.
Redshirt freshman running back Johnathan Franklin was a bright spot for the Bruins. He carried the ball 11 times for 101 yards and a career-high two scores.
“The line did its job, and I hit the holes,” Franklin said. “It was just like practice.”
His first touchdown, from seven yards away, cut the UCLA deficit to 14-7.
Riley countered with a 51-yard touchdown pass to Best, who had raced past redshirt senior linebacker Kyle Bosworth, to give the Golden Bears a two-possession lead. The touchdown catch was the longest of Best’s career.
“We have a bunch of proud guys on the defense that are going to work to get that fixed,” Neuheisel said.
The back-and-forth exchange continued, as Franklin wasted little time to respond. On the first play of UCLA’s next drive, Franklin took the handoff and sprinted 74 yards to the end zone.
That was the last time the Bruins would reach it. Redshirt junior place kicker Kai Forbath nailed all of his four field goal attempts to cap the Bruins’ scoring.
“We had opportunities to score in the red zone, and we didn’t take advantage of them,” Franklin said. “We have to strive to be perfect.”
After halftime, UCLA’s defense limited Cal to a field goal in the second half.
But by then, the damage had already been done.
Cal sent much of the announced crowd of 67,317 toward the exits with a 68-yard interception return for a touchdown by linebacker Mychal Kendricks off quarterback Kevin Prince late in the fourth quarter.
“I guarantee you Kevin is sick about it because he had Logan Paulsen 10 yards open,” Neuheisel said. “All (Prince) had to do was put a little air on it. For whatever reason, he got excited about seeing (Paulsen) that open, and it didn’t get over (Kendricks’) head.”
An unhappy Moore, whose nine tackles led the Bruins, did not seek solutions following the game. He did not shake his head or shrug his shoulders. He simply gave the Golden Bears credit.
“Big ups to Cal,” he said. “They came ready to play.”
