UCLA Stomps on Cougars, 54-16, as Green Puts Both Feet Forward

The most famous bunion since Paul is on Gaston Green’s left foot.

Green may not yet be a folklore figure, but after he ran for 162 yards Saturday in UCLA’s 54-16 wipeout of Washington State at the Rose Bowl, the Bruins are once again looking like a pretty good story.

There wasn’t much stopping the Bruins. Not Washington State tacklers and certainly not Green’s sore big toe, the one that has been bothering him for the past six weeks.

“I wanted to prove to myself that I could play with pain and just suck it up,” said Green, who also scored two touchdowns in the rout.

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said he wasn’t sure whether Green would be able to play because of the bunion. Worrying about Green’s injury, Donahue sought the help of a specialist. So he saw a podiatrist.

“He’s been educating me about these things,” Donahue said.

All Green saw was a lot of room to run.

As it turned out, Green wasn’t the only Bruin who had the same vision. UCLA rushed for 345 yards on its way to a day of 543 yards of total offense and a stunningly easy victory over the Cougars, who came in dreaming of an upset and left with their hopes for the Rose Bowl game dashed.

The Cougars lost by a foot, the one belonging to Green, who went over the 100-yard mark for the third time this season. Actually, Washington State lost by a ton, and suddenly the Bruins are right where they wanted to be all along, knee-deep in the Rose Bowl race.

UCLA is 3-1 in the Pacific 10, which makes Donahue feel a lot better about the Bruins.

“With three consecutive wins, it looks like we’re generating some momentum,” Donahue said. “This is the first time all season that I see us as involved in the conference race. We started late, lost our opening game and fell behind and struggled. Now, hey, we’re in the hunt.”

That same hunt ended for the Cougars (2-2-1 in the Pac-10), who simply could not defend against the Bruin running attack. But then, neither could they defend against the passing attack.

Matt Stevens threw for 198 yards, including a five-yard touchdown pass to tight end Derek Tennell when the rout was on. Stevens completed 16 of 26 passes and directed a Bruin attack that scored 47 consecutive points after Washington State moved to a 16-7 lead in the second quarter.

The Bruins had only themselves to blame for the hole they were in. With the score tied, 7-7, after an 18-yard touchdown run by Green and a 24-yarder by Steve Broussard of the Cougars, Washington State took advantage of two UCLA mistakes to move ahead by nine points.

On the first play of the second quarter, Stevens fumbled a pitch to James Primus, and Tim Downing recovered for WSU at the UCLA 13. Three plays later, Broussard scored from the three, and the Cougars jumped to a 14-7 lead.

WSU added a safety when Kevin Thomasson blocked Harold Barkate’s punt deep in UCLA territory and Barkate could only fall on it in the end zone.

Right then, Donahue was feeling shaky.

“I was looking for a place to hide,” he said.

But those points were the last Washington State was to score. From then on, the Bruins took off, and Green led the way.

He began his onslaught with a 50-yard gain on a sweep down the right sideline before being finally bumped out of bounds at the Cougar 15. Green gained four yards on third and three at the eight and, two plays later, ran another sweep, this time to the left, to score from two yards out.

That brought UCLA up to 16-14 and was the signal to the Bruins that they were on their way.

“All of a sudden, we had 47 unanswered points,” Donahue said.

Primus, running the same sweep play on which Green was enjoying success, put UCLA ahead to stay on a 36-yard touchdown run. A two-point conversion pass from Stevens to Willie (Flipper) Anderson sent the Bruins into their locker room with a 22-16 lead at halftime.

All it did was get worse, or better, from there. In the second half, UCLA outscored the Cougars, 32-0. Primus scored twice more, David Franey kicked a 34-yard field goal, Mel Farr ran seven yards for his first touchdown of the season, and Tennell caught his scoring pass from Stevens.

“I don’t care if I complete one pass and we win,” Stevens said. “We all just enjoyed watching Gaston. He’s a phenom.”

For once, Green wasn’t a limping phenom. He was the playing variety.

“I do not want to do commercials for Band-Aids,” Green said. “It seemed that all I had to do was run down the sideline.”

So that is what Green did. The fact Green was able to run at all was somewhat unexpected. Donahue said that during practice last week, Green never practiced more than 40 minutes because of his bunion.

“He’s going to be one of those players who won’t be 100%,” Donahue said. “We won’t know each week whether we’ll have him on Saturday. That’s a fact. But when he’s able to go, he’s a factor.”

Green was listed as questionable before the game, but he said he knew all along he would be able to play. He did not, however, know how much pain he would be feeling.

“When I planted on it or cut, I felt twinges, but I didn’t want to take myself out of the game,” he said. “When I made a long run, it got my confidence going. I got a feel for the defense, then.”

For at least the present, the Bruins are getting a feeling for the Rose Bowl again.

It’s an old feeling, according to Primus.

“We didn’t go in the tank when we made some mistakes and fell behind,” Primus said. “I was happy for the team. I was happy for myself.”

But the happiest Bruin had to be Green.

“We started off pretty bad, and everybody was saying that UCLA wasn’t as good as they thought,” Green said. “Maybe those same people are changing their minds now.”