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BYU blocks kick on final play to preserve win

Dec 23, 2007 - 7:06 AM LAS VEGAS (Ticker) -- The Las Vegas Bowl could be renamed the BYU Bowl or Cougar Classic.

BYU, playing in its third straight Las Vegas Bowl, got a pair of touchdown passes from Max Hall in a thrilling 17-16-victory against UCLA on Saturday.

It was the Cougars' second straight Las Vegas Bowl triumph, but far from their convincing five-touchdown victory against Oregon in 2006.

In fact, they were lucky to escape with a win.

BYU (11-2) only rushed for 36 yards and was held scoreless in the second half as it couldn't pull away from a pesky UCLA (6-7) squad playing with nothing to lose. DeWayne Walker, a likely one-game coach, led the Bruins after Karl Dorrell was fired last month.

UCLA had the ball at BYU's 11-yard line with three seconds to play, but Kai Forbath's potential game-winning 26-yard field goal was blocked by Eathyn Manumaleuma as time expired.

Forbath was a perfect 3-for-3 on the night before the kick, including boots of 52 and 50 yards.

"I don't have any vertical," said Manumaleuma, a 280-pound defensive lineman. "I don't know how high I jumped or how I (blocked) it."

But what else do you expect at the Las Vegas er BYU Bowl?

The sellout crowd was a majority of BYU fans, all of whose fears turned to cheers after the final play.

"What I saw was an incredible surge," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "We sent all 11, which is a desperation block."

Hall threw touchdown passes of 14 yards to Austin Collie and 13 yards to Michael Reed as BYU built a 17-6 lead with 1:03 to play in the half.

But UCLA scored on the half's final play with McLeod Bethel-Thompson connecting with Brandon Breazell for a four-yard scoring strike.

Hall completed 21-of-35 pass for 232 yards, but the Cougars couldn't get anything going offensively after halftime. This was BYU's lowest-scoring output of the year, far from the 35 or more points the Cougars scored six times this season.

Bethel-Thompson completed 11 passes for 157 yards for UCLA, while the Bruins Chris Markey rushed for 117 yards on 27 carries.

"We wanted to play a respectable game and win," Walker said. "I wasn't worried about my job or playing for a job. We played to win and it hurts that we came up short."