THE ROSE BOWL : Huskies Win, but Can’t Go the Rout : Game: Washington rolls to a 33-7 halftime lead, then fends off a rally by Iowa for a 46-34 victory.

Washington won history’s highest-scoring Rose Bowl game Tuesday, working out its frustrations at not winning college football’s national championship by outlasting Iowa, 46-34, before 101,273 in Pasadena.

The Huskies had more points by halftime (33) than the winning team has scored in the entire game in 57 of the 77 Rose Bowls played.

Sophomore quarterback Mark Brunell passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more, staking Washington to a huge halftime lead that turned out to be necessary. The Huskies (10-2) also scored on a blocked punt and an interception against the Hawkeyes (8-4), who became the Big Ten Conference’s 18th loser in the last 22 Rose Bowls.

At least Iowa was able to “make the game interesting,” to quote its coach, Hayden Fry, after being behind at the half, 33-7.

That was the only consolation for Fry, who is winless in three New Year’s Days here. In Iowa’s three Rose Bowl appearances since the Eisenhower Administration, it scored no points in the 1982 Rose Bowl--and lost--scored 28 points in the 1986 Rose Bowl--lost again--and discovered Tuesday that even five touchdowns can’t guarantee a happy ending.

Washington, too, could use some consoling.

Had it not been for a six-point loss to top-ranked Colorado and a three-point loss to underdog UCLA, the Huskies could well be the nation’s No. 1 team.

Said Brunell, who was voted the Rose Bowl’s outstanding player: “Speaking for all the guys, we don’t look back. It doesn’t matter what might have been or what could have been. We’re very happy where we are right now.”

The quarterback did not, as it turned out, speak for his center, Ed Cunningham, who contended: “I still think we’re the best team in America. If there was a playoff this year, I think hands-down we would win it.”

And Colorado?

“Give us five downs and we’d score 100 points,” joked Cunningham, referring to Colorado’s controversial fifth-down victory over Missouri.

A lethal weapon Washington had to do without for most of the UCLA game, leading rusher Greg Lewis, rushed 19 times for 128 yards Tuesday in his return engagement after injuring his knee against the Bruins. Lewis was one of many reasons why Washington dominated Iowa so thoroughly in the first half.

However, running for four scores against the nation’s leading rushing defense, the Hawkeyes refused to go quietly. They scored 20 points in the fourth quarter.

“Never say die. We never quit,” said Hawkeye quarterback Matt Rodgers, who ran for two touchdowns and passed for another. “It’s a lot different from last year’s (Iowa) team. We did actually quit at one point last year.”

Why did Fry’s team fight back the way it did Tuesday?

“Because it’s a hell of a long walk back to Iowa,” Fry said.

The game was reminiscent of Wisconsin’s 1963 experience, when, trailing 42-14, the Badgers eventually lost to USC, 42-37. Those had been the most points scored by two Rose Bowl teams before Tuesday’s 80-point score-a-thon.

For a while, Washington looked as though it might score 80 by itself.

First came a 23-yard field goal by Travis Hanson, capping a game-opening, time-consuming drive. Coach Don James played it safe after the Huskies drove to the Hawkeye six.

Next came cornerback Dana Hall’s 27-yard scoop-up of a punt blocked by defensive end Andy Mason.

Iowa’s Fry did not play it safe. He gave punter Jim Hujsak permission to fake a kick and pass the football should Washington forget to cover an eligible receiver. When Hujsak crept forward a couple of steps, Washington took the necessary precautions on defense, Mason smothered the punt and Hall, a junior from Diamond Bar, carried it in for a 10-0 lead.

The quarter ended that way, after which Iowa struck back with the first of two touchdowns scored by 255-pound tailback Nick Bell, a 15-yarder around right end that made it 10-7.

Hanson hit his second field goal, this one from 38 yards, after a 44-yard run by Lewis. Then Washington’s defense got its second touchdown, one that, like Hall’s, had a local angle. Cornerback Charles Mincy, an all-conference transfer from Pasadena City College, zigged when Iowa receiver Danan Hughes zagged and went 37 yards with an intercepted Rodgers pass.

Fry blamed “busted routes” for this and other Iowa woes, but his quarterback, Rodgers, refused to pass the buck to his receiver, saying: “It’s both our faults. I shouldn’t have thrown the ball.”

For Iowa, the first half only got worse.

Another Washington player with local ties, Beno Bryant from Dorsey High, returned a punt 29 yards to set the stage for Brunell’s first score, a five-yard run. Later in the quarter, Brunell lobbed a 22-yard touchdown pass to Mario Bailey, making the score 33-7 and leaving Iowa in need of a serious pep talk.

Fry tried to think of one.

“Sounds kind of corny, but there’s not a whole lot you can tell ‘em at that point,” Fry said. “Except that I’ve had football teams pull these things out before this. So, I just reviewed those old games and told ‘em to keep the faith.”

It didn’t help much. Rodgers did score on a seven-yard run, but Brunell countered with a 20-yard bootleg that put Washington ahead, 39-14, after three quarters.

That should have been that.

“But they just wouldn’t let up,” Brunell said, in praise of the Hawkeyes.

Iowa tried everything. Reverses, flea-flickers, a halfback pass by Bell good for 66 yards--so many trick plays, Fry said, “I ran out.”

Rodgers, who had only 65 yards passing after three quarters, threw one to Mike Saunders good for 32, then lugged the ball himself for a nine-yard touchdown. Score: 39-20. One onside kick later, Bell went through the middle of Washington’s vaunted defense untouched on a 20-yard run. Score: 39-26.

Enough of this, the Huskies said. Fielding the next onside kick, Washington needed only two plays to score, Brunell finding Bailey again from 31 yards out.

Iowa had a little life left. Rodgers passed 12 yards to Saunders for another score. A 285-pound offensive lineman, Ted Velicer, even caught a tipped pass for a two-point conversion, making it 46-34.

But defeat awaited the Hawkeyes, just as it did Big Ten brothers Illinois (Hall of Fame Bowl), Ohio State (Liberty Bowl) and Indiana (Peach Bowl). And no school from the conference besides Michigan or Michigan State has won a Rose Bowl since Ohio State, 1974.

“I have no idea” why Big Ten representatives win this game so rarely, James said. “Doesn’t make sense to me. They’re fine teams.”

Rose Bowl Notes

With the score 39-14, Washington Coach Don James had his team go for a two-point conversion. It failed. . . . The Huskies are 8-3 in bowl games in James’ 16 seasons. . . . Greg Lewis got his 128 yards for Washington without rushing in the fourth quarter. . . . The good news for Iowa senior Tony Stewart was that he broke the school career rushing record of 2,556 yards held by Owen Gill. Bad news was that Stewart was held to 24 yards in seven carries. . . . Hayden Fry’s three Rose Bowl teams have given up 119 points. “We seem to have a difficult time stopping someone in a bowl game,” Fry understated. . . . With three of his passes intercepted, Iowa’s Matt Rodgers tied a Rose Bowl record held by eight others, most recently USC’s Rodney Peete (1988). . . . Only four other players--UCLA’s Eric Ball and Rick Neuheisel and USC’s Sam Cunningham and Pete Beathard--had personally accounted for four touchdowns as Washington quarterback Mark Brunell did Tuesday. . . . Husky punter Channing Wyles hit one 59 yards, had to do it over due to a penalty, kicked the next one 60. . . . New Year’s Day game-time temperature in Pasadena was 77 degrees.

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