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UCLA’s Craig Bragg moved closer to becoming the school’s all-time leader in reception

Though UCLA’s offense put up its lowest point total since the first week of the season, Maurice Drew rebounded for one of his better performances of the season. The sophomore tailback, who created astronomically high expectations in the beginning of the year, had gone three straight games without gaining over 100 yards rushing. However, he was consistently able to get into the open field against the Cardinal, picking up 105 yards on just 12 carries, 98 of which came in the second half. “Everyone has seen him make those moves, jumping over guys and spinning,” quarterback Drew Olson said. “He’s a fun guy to watch play, and anytime he touches the ball it seems like he can go.” Drew scored two touchdowns, one off a 3-yard reception early in the fourth quarter that put the game away. But the touchdown that has people talking came on an electrifying 68-yard punt return where he shuffled through would-be tacklers after the catch, made a nice cutback in Cardinal territory and then outran the pursuing special teams unit. “Everyone saw me to the left and started running to the left, and all the blockers pushed everyone to the left, so I just went around right,” Drew said. The touchdown gave Drew, who has been sharing punt-returning duties with Jarrad Page, his first career score off a punt. It also marked his tenth touchdown of over 40 yards. Drew’s two touchdowns overshadowed fellow tailback Manual White, who also had a strong day. White had a quiet 87 yards on 12 carries and gave the Bruins their first touchdown of the day with a 2-yard run up the middle. The pair’s effort reaffirmed the strength of UCLA’s rushing attack, which amassed 246 yards and averaged 6.8 yards a carry.

BRAGG WATCH: In his second game back from a separated shoulder that had held him out of three games, wideout Craig Bragg seemed like he was back in the swing of things. The senior standout had a team-high 48 receiving yards on five receptions. “It feels pretty good, especially off the injury, that the coaches have a lot of confidence in me to go out there and make plays,” Bragg said. All five catches were on short throws, as the Bruins didn’t really throw the deep ball much during the game. “We had that planned going into the game,” Bragg said. “Their corners like to sit back, so we had to attack underneath.” Bragg is now just six receptions shy of breaking the all-time UCLA record held by Kevin Jordan with 179.

DRAGOVIC CONTRIBUTES: Freshman defensive end Nikola Dragovic recorded the first sack of his career, dropping Stanford’s Trent Edwards for a loss of 8 yards on a third down play late in the third quarter. Dragovic, who had missed the past couple of weeks because of a high ankle sprain, came back unexpectedly early this week. “When I got hurt, I was upset because all year I wanted to do something for this team, so coming back today made playing even better,” he said.

NOTES: Junior linebacker Spencer Havner recorded a game-high 16 tackles, increasing his Pac-10 lead ... Junior linebacker Justin London, the Bruins’ leading returning tackler, recorded a season-high 10 tackles.