UCLA Bruins Maul UC Berkeley Golden Bears, 42-14
By ravaging the Bears, UCLA has swept the other three Pac-12 California schools for the first time since 1998.
The UCLA Bruins improved their record to 8-4 tonight by soundly defeating the UC Berkeley Golden Bears, 42-14, in front of a sparse home crowd of 36,156 at the Rose Bowl.
The Bruins dominated for most of the game. The first quarter was a pretty even battle with the only scoring coming on UCLA’s first drive, which saw the Bruins drive 47 yards only to be stalled on the UC Berkeley 23-yard line. Then, Nicolas Barr-Mira nailed a 41-yard field goal to put the Bruins up, 3-0.
With 3:15 left in the first quarter, Jay Shaw intercepted a pass from Chase Garbers and returned it to the Berkeley 40. UCLA took advantage of the short field and scored the first touchdown of the game when Dorian Thompson-Robinson hit Kyle Philips on a 4-yard pass to put the Bruins up 9-0. The extra point was good.
The Bruin defense then fell into some old bad habits and gave up consecutive touchdowns which allowed the Bears to take a 14-10 lead.
But the UCLA offense wasn’t going to allow UC Berkeley to have the lead at the half. The Bruins drove 64 yards and scored their second touchdown when Kazmeir Allen, playing in place of an injured Brittain Brown, scored on an 8-yard run with 26 seconds left in the half. The touchdown put UCLA ahead for good and the Bruins took a 17-14 lead into the locker room.
The second half was all UCLA. The defense shut the Bears out in the second half and they were able to shut down the Bears’ attack completely.
Meanwhile, the Bruin offense scored on four of their six possessions of the second half in a display which looked a lot like last week. After punting on their first possession of the half, they scored on four consecutive drives.
First, it was a 29-yard pass from DTR to Greg Dulcich which increased UCLA’s lead to 24-14. Then, Barr-Mira hit his second field goal of the game. This time, it was from 46 yards out and UCLA led 27-14 after three.
In the fourth quarter, Zach Charbonnet added a one-yard touchdown run that put the Bruins up by three scores, 35-14, after DTR found Charbonnet in the end zone for the two-point conversion.
The Bruins’ final touchdown of the game came with 8:53 left on a 4-yard reception by Philips.
Meanwhile, the UCLA defense was on the field for just 12 plays in the third quarter and they held the Bears to 20 yards total and forced three consecutive three-and-outs.
It didn’t get much better for UC Berkeley in the fourth quarter. Sure, they gained 46 yards, but they just couldn’t find the end zone. It took them until late in the game to put together a viable scoring threat. They drove 74 yards down to the UCLA one-yard line but they just were not able to punch it in and turned it over on downs. That drive started with 8:47 to go and ate up more than six minutes worth of clock.
So, it was a whole lot of nothing and UCLA took over on down with 2:45 left. Ethan Garbers, then, came in for DTR and the Bruins just ran out the clock.
Zach Charbonnet finished with 106 yards on 22 carries while DTR ran for 102 yards on 13 carries. Overall, the Bruins ran for 282 yards on the night. DTR also added 164 yards through the air and Greg Dulcich led the team with six receptions for 86 of those yards.
Defensively, UCLA held the Bears to just 92 yards rushing and 125 yards passing.
The only real downside to tonight’s win is that it’s yet another win against a sub-.500 team and the Bruins still haven’t won a game this season against a team with a winning record.
Now, the Bruins wait to find out where they will go bowling. As of right now, it looks like it could be the Las Vegas Bowl on Thursday, December 30th at Allegiant Stadium, the new home of the Raiders and UNLV football.
Go Bruins!!!
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If it is Vegas Ima go.
The prediction of the writers and others here of an 8-win season were spot on! Pretty impressive!