Nov. 1, 1997

Stanford Falls to UCLA

STANFORD, Calif. - Oft-injured Skip Hicks rushed for 121 yards and three touchdowns as number 13 UCLA notched its seventh straight victory, whipping Pac-10 Conference foe Stanford, 27-7 to remain in the thick of the Rose Bowl race.

The surging Bruins (7-2, 5-1 Pac-10), who have rebounded from an 0-2 start, trail Pac-10 co-leaders Washington and Washington State by a half-game. UCLA, which hosts Washington on November 15th following an off week, is rooting for Arizona State to beat undefeated Washington State tonight in Tempe.

"That win was great," Hicks said. "We're in a big three-game November stretch and it was great to start it off with a good victory against a good team."

While UCLA came in ranked second in the country in scoring with 42.3 points per game, the Bruins shut down the Cardinal behind a strong defensive effort, holding Stanford (4-4, 2-3) to minus-34 yards rushing, including minus-29 in the first half.

UCLA sacked Chad Hutchinson six times for losses totaling 47 yards and held the ball for over 39 minutes. Mike Mitchell was Stanford's leading rusher, gaining 12 yards on five carries.

The last time Stanford had a negative rushing total was on November 20th, 1993, when the Cardinals posted minus-five yards against California.

"I think every football team tries to stay away from being as one-dimensional as possible," said Stanford coach Tyrone Willingham, whose club has lost three straight. "Through the course of the game, we kept coming back to the running game. We were never able to effectively get the running game moving."

Stanford finally got on the board on backup Todd Husak's 35-yard TD pass to Jimmie Johnson with 42 seconds remaining.

"The defense played fantastic," UCLA coach Bob Toledo. "I feel very sorry for them that they gave up the passing touchdown in the end, but that's part of the game. The offense had to overcome 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 on runs of four and one yards to give the Bruins a 14-0 lead. He rambled 19 yards to make it 27-0 with 1:59 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Hicks, who last week played an entire game for the first time since September 27th, now has 20 touchdowns to match the UCLA single-season record he set in 1996 and is three shy of Marcus Allen'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 opening possession to take a 7-0 lead on Hicks' four-yard run with 11:12 remaining. Cade McNown's 73-yard pass to Rodney Lee set up Hicks' one-yard plunge with 2:12 left.

Chris Sailer booted field goals of 27 and 25 yards in the second quarter to extend UCLA's lead to 20-0.

"I don't think it was just our mistakes," Hutchinson said. "I thought we were ready for them. They put the heat on. They played well."

McNown, who passed Tom Ramsey last week to become UCLA's all-time career passing leader, was 15-of-28 for 205 yards and needs two completions to break Ramsey's school record of 441.

"I am very proud of our team," Toledo said. "They responded to everything we've asked them to do over the last seven weeks."

Stanford University Football