<!sean>
Nov. 1, 1997
Stanford Falls to UCLA
STANFORD, Calif. - Oft-injured Skip Hicks rushed for 121 yards and three touchdownsas number 13 UCLA notched its seventh straight victory, whippingPac-10 Conference foe Stanford, 27-7 to remain in the thick ofthe Rose Bowl race.
The surging Bruins (7-2, 5-1 Pac-10), who have rebounded from an0-2 start, trail Pac-10 co-leaders Washington and WashingtonState by a half-game. UCLA, which hosts Washington on November15th following an off week, is rooting for Arizona State to beatundefeated Washington State tonight in Tempe.
"That win was great," Hicks said. "We're in a big three-gameNovember stretch and it was great to start it off with a goodvictory against a good team."
While UCLA came in ranked second in the country in scoring with42.3 points per game, the Bruins shut down the Cardinal behind astrong defensive effort, holding Stanford (4-4, 2-3) to minus-34yards rushing, including minus-29 in the first half.
UCLA sacked Chad Hutchinson six times for losses totaling 47yards and held the ball for over 39 minutes. Mike Mitchell wasStanford's leading rusher, gaining 12 yards on five carries.
The last time Stanford had a negative rushing total was onNovember 20th, 1993, when the Cardinals posted minus-five yardsagainst California.
"I think every football team tries to stay away from being asone-dimensional as possible," said Stanford coach TyroneWillingham, whose club has lost three straight. "Through thecourse of the game, we kept coming back to the running game. Wewere never able to effectively get the running game moving."
Stanford finally got on the board on backup Todd Husak's 35-yardTD pass to Jimmie Johnson with 42 seconds remaining.
"The defense played fantastic," UCLA coach Bob Toledo. "I feelvery sorry for them that they gave up the passing touchdown inthe end, but that's part of the game. The offense had toovercome a lot of penalties, but we had enough points to win. It was a hard-fought, good victory for the program."
Hicks found the end zone twice in the first quarter, scoring onruns of four and one yards to give the Bruins a 14-0 lead. Herambled 19 yards to make it 27-0 with 1:59 remaining in thefourth quarter.
Hicks, who last week played an entire game for the first timesince September 27th, now has 20 touchdowns to match the UCLAsingle-season record he set in 1996 and is three shy of MarcusAllen's Pac-10 single-season mark of 23. With 49 career TDs,Hicks is four away from Charles White's Pac-10 record of 53.
UCLA marched 59 yards on seven plays on the game's openingpossession to take a 7-0 lead on Hicks' four-yard run with 11:12remaining. Cade McNown's 73-yard pass to Rodney Lee set upHicks' one-yard plunge with 2:12 left.
Chris Sailer booted field goals of 27 and 25 yards in the secondquarter to extend UCLA's lead to 20-0.
"I don't think it was just our mistakes," Hutchinson said. "Ithought we were ready for them. They put the heat on. Theyplayed well."
McNown, who passed Tom Ramsey last week to become UCLA'sall-time career passing leader, was 15-of-28 for 205 yards andneeds two completions to break Ramsey's school record of 441.
"I am very proud of our team," Toledo said. "They responded toeverything we've asked them to do over the last seven weeks."