Pasadena, CA- The UCLA football team was on the verge of holding onto the Victory Bell for the second straight year, but collapsed late as the USC Trojans came back to win the Crosstown Rivalry on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.
UCLA led 13-9 late going into the fourth quarter after trailing 9-3 at the half. The Bruins ended up giving up a touchdown with 6:55 left in the game to give the Trojans the lead and eventually the win as USC escaped the Rose Bowl with a 16-13 win.
UCLA head coach Deshaun Foster said that he was proud of the defensive effort, holding the Trojans to just one touchdown, but noted it takes a team effort to knock off a team like USC.
“Defensively, the defense came out and played a great game. We stopped them plenty of times. We held them to a lot of field goals.It’s a team sport,” Foster began with. “I just need our offense to be at their best when their best is needed. I like how hard my guys played. It just showed that they’re resilient. But we just didn’t do enough to win this game.”
Foster added the Bruins’ inability to manufacture points after holding USC to only field goals came back to haunt them as the Trojans scored their only touchdown late in the game.
“(USC) Just finally made a play. They are scholarship athletes on that side of the ball, too. So they were eventually going to make a play. It was unfortunate. It ended as a six-point game, a one-score game. If we could have just found a way to manufacture a drive and just keep a rhythm and keep going, but we weren’t able to do that,” he said. “Like I said before, we’ve got one more week to get out there, and we are going to try to fix this.”
Despite the lack of points, the UCLA offense had moments where they looked the best all season.
Bruins quarterback Ethan Garbers completed 20 of 29 passes for 265 yards and one touchdown. Foster was extremely complimentary of his quarterback after the game.
“Ethan’s a gamer. He is always going to be positive and continue to play hard. He doesn’t complain. He just comes back to the sideline. He always uplifts the players and keeps them going,” Foster added.
UCLA wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant had his best game of the season in the loss. Sturdviant hauled in five receptions for 117 yards as he led all receivers in the game.
The Bruins conclude their season next week as they host Fresno State at the Rose Bowl at 12:30 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network.
