Tough Loss! UCLA Beats Arizona 56 – 30

Photo By: Darren Wallentine/Arizona Athletics

By Francisco Romero. – Playing in-front-of  a sold out crowd of 56,004 at Arizona Stadium, the Arizona Wildcats started the game against No. 9 UCLA just as it had planned Saturday night, by scoring on the first drive of the game.

Anu Solomon connected with Nate Phillips on a 34-yard pass to take the lead at 7-0 with 12:20 to go on the first quarter, on a 10-play, 75-yard series.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats (3-1, 0-1 Pac-12), that would be their only lead in the game as the Bruins beat 16^th ranked Arizona 56-30.

The Bruins took advantage of Arizona’s three turnovers in the first-half

The Wildcats had a hard time coming back.

“You cannot beat a good team with some of the unforced errors we made today. They are going to force some errors, which they did, and then we also had some unforced errors. You combine those things, and you are not going to win,” said Arizona had coach Rich Rodriguez during his post game press conference.

After taking a hit above the shoulder in the second quarter, quarterback Anu Solomon left the game and did not go back into the game.

Jerrard Randall entered the game for Solomon and scored on a 39-yard run on the first play.

Randall finished the game with 128 rushing yards and a touchdown; running back Nick Wilson added 136 yards on 24 carries.  Arizona finished the game with 456 total yards.

Jerrard Randall recorded his first career touchdown pass with a 16-yard strike to David Richards with 11:05 remaining in the third quarter. He had rushed for four touchdowns before recording his first passing score.

Led by freshmen quarterback Josh Rosen, the Bruins (4-0, 1-0 Pac-12) were too much to handle on the offensive side.

“We did not tackle well and I was really disappointed. I thought we had tackled well prior to today, but they had some good skill players and good running backs that will make you miss,” said Rodriguez after the game.

Rosen finished the game with 284 passing yards, completing 19-of-28 passes; Jordan Payton caught 7 passes for 136 yards and 1 touchdown.

Soso Jamabo rushed for 96 yards on 9 carries, while Paul Perkins added 85 yards on 24 carries.

Arizona’s linebacker Scooby Wright played Saturday night after leaving the first game of the season with an injury.

“He made some plays. It’s still his first game and he’s still working himself back into shape,” said Rodriguez in regards to Wright’s first game back.

Arizona will travel to Palo Alto, California to face Stanford next week.