It’s a Win From 53, but a Tie From 54 : Football: USC, UCLA struggle to 10-10 draw in turnover-filled game. Velasco’s 54-yard field goal attempt bounces off the crossbar as time runs out.

Time had already expired on the Coliseum clock Saturday afternoon, but the outcome of the UCLA-USC game was still up in the air.

Along with the football.

UCLA’s Alfredo Velasco, trying to break a 10-10 tie, had just attempted a field goal from 54 yards away and it was so quiet in the Coliseum, you could hear USC’s ranking drop.

Forty thousand-odd Bruin fans leaned one way, trying to mentally coax the ball over. Forty thousand-odd Trojan fans leaned the other way.

The ball hit the crossbar, bounced up for an agonizing second . . . and then fell back into the end zone.

No good!

Several Bruins stretched out on the ground in agony.

Velasco just stood and stared, looking fit to be tied.

But in the locker rooms afterward, there was no question who had won the moral victory.

Trojan Coach Larry Smith, handed roses as part of the invitation ceremony for the Rose Bowl, looked as if he were receiving a funeral wreath.

In the Bruin locker room, there was a feeling of vindication for a 3-7-1 team.

“We’ve been in 22 of these games,” UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said, “and I’m not sure any UCLA team has played harder or with more pride and spirit.”

But even with the tie, Donahue, who has been criticized all year for the malfunction of his offense, had his critics.

When Leroy Holt fumbled late in the fourth quarter, UCLA took over on its 12-yard line with 2:02 to play.

Bruin quarterback Bret Johnson hit Scott Miller with a 52-yard pass over Dwayne Garner. First down UCLA at the USC 36 and some much-needed offensive momentum.

But Donahue decided to use it conservatively. He would play it safe and go for the field goal against a defense that began the game first in the nation against the rush.

Shawn Wills took a pitchout to the 35.

Fifty-three seconds to play.

On second down, Johnson kept the ball and picked up a yard to the 34.

Rather than call time out and, perhaps, give USC a chance to strike back, Donahue elected to let the clock run.

“We weren’t really trying to score (a touchdown),” Johnson said. “You’ve got to understand that all we were trying to do was get in range (for a field goal) and not give them enough time to come back.”

Added Donahue, “We were just trying to get it to the 32 because we thought he could kick a 49-yard field goal.”

Velasco had, earlier, but his opportunity now would be much longer. On third down from the 34, Wills, who was supposed to cut inside, elected to go outside and was knocked down by Cleveland Colter at the 37.

Loss of three. And suddenly, the 49-yard field goal attempt was a 54-yarder that went 53 yards and change.

It didn’t figure to be that close, certainly not to the oddsmakers, who had made the Trojans (8-2-1 and eighth-ranked) a 17-point favorite.

But then it didn’t look as if the Bruins could win with only 13 points.

Certainly not in the first quarter, when Trojan quarterback Todd Marinovich went long on his first play from scrimmage and connected with Gary Wellman on a 39-yard pass.

Marinovich passed for 78 yards on the opening scoring drive, the final 13 yards coming on a great catch by Wellman in the end zone.

Or out of the end zone?

With Wellman barely ahead of defender Carlton Gray, Marinovich led his receiver perfectly. Wellman left the ground, grabbed the ball on his fingertips and then tried to come down as quickly as possible, knowing he was skirting the out-of-bounds line.

“I just tried to stay loose,” Wellman said. “I knew if I got too tight, I wasn’t going to catch it. So, I just tried to stay loose and run under it. The lower half of my body was dragging (through the end zone). I felt myself going off to the right, but I thought I was in.”

The end zone was painted red and white. Where the red part ended, so did fair territory.

“Our coach (receiver coach Mike Sanford) had told us before the game,” Wellman said, “that only the red was in bounds, so I was just thinking ‘red, red.’ ”

“I was step for step with him,” Gray said. “It was a perfect throw, but I still thought he was out of bounds.

“But I really can’t blame the ref. He called it like he saw it, and, with all those stripes in the end zone, it’s hard to tell.”

The replays were inconclusive, but not the scoreboard. After Quin Rodriguez’s conversion kick, it read USC 7, UCLA 0.

Smith kept turning the pages in his playbook.

He had gambled on that first drive, going on for a first down on fourth-and-10 from the UCLA 29, and getting it when Marinovich hit Scott Galbraith with an 11-yard pass. With a lead, Smith wasn’t likely to turn conservative.

The next time the Trojans got the ball, he called a reverse, with receiver John Jackson getting the ball and then turning passer, going deep for Wellman.

The pass fell incomplete.

Suddenly, the good times were over for the Trojans when it seemed as if they were just getting started. The Bruin defense tightened up, the passes began to miss their mark and the USC offense was out of ammunition with three quarters of the game still to play.

Marinovich passed for only 76 yards after the first series. He also had three passes intercepted and also gave away the ball on a poorly thrown pitch that UCLA recovered.

Among the good and bad Bruin-Trojan games, this one should be classified as ugly.

USC fumbled six times and lost three, giving the Trojans a total of six turnovers. UCLA had three turnovers: one interception and two lost fumbles.

And the flags. So many it looked as if the United Nations was holding a rally. USC was penalized nine times for 80 yards, UCLA seven times for 79 yards.

“We warned both captains before the game and told them to take it back to their benches,” official Bill Richardson said. “Before the game, there were two instances that could be interpreted as taunting, so we knew were in for an emotional game.”

So emotional that it cost both sides.

For examples: In the second quarter, Marinovich passed to Frank Griffin, who fumbled, the ball recovered by UCLA’s Craig Davis at the USC 16.

Instead, a personal foul and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty moved the ball back 30 yards. First and 40, UCLA.

It was the tone of the entire afternoon, leaving the crowd of 86,672 groaning in frustration, regardless of their loyalties.

Later in the quarter, after one of two interceptions by Eric Turner, the Bruins put together their only scoring drive of the day, a 49-yard, seven-play drive that climaxed with Kevin Williams taking a pitch and going in around the right side from the three.

Only Notre Dame had previously been able to run through against the 1989 Trojan defensive front for a touchdown.

In all, UCLA managed a net gain of 51 yards. Williams was the leader with 70 yards in 16 carries. But five sacks (two each by Tim Ryan and Junior Seau and one by Dan Owens) helped bring down the team total.

USC led, 10-7, at the half when Rodriguez’s 40-yard field goal attempt hit the right upright and bounced through.

In the third quarter, Smith suddenly turned John Robinson, sticking to an effective ground game.

Tailback Ricky Ervins rushed for 173 yards and was able to keep the ball in Trojan hands for long stretches--at least until those turnovers kept popping up.

The most costly of the third quarter came on a third-and-six at the USC 45.

Marinovich was supposed to pitch out to Ervins.

“He got blocked out,” Marinovich said. “I just saw the color and pitched it.”

Holt was wearing the color, and he was blocking. The ball bounced past him and UCLA’s Meech Shaw recovered.

The Bruins used the opportunity to tie the game at the start of the fourth quarter on Velasco’s 49-yard field goal.

But USC still seemed poised to win when it drove to the UCLA 15 with a little more than two minutes to play.

Then came Holt’s fumble, recovered by the Bruins’ Rocen Keeton.

“At least defensively, we proved we’re not soft,” Keeton said. “We took it to SC. They scored 10 points, and one (score) was on a questionable touchdown.”

It was, Holt said of his fumble, his first ever. In high school. In college. Ever.

“It was totally my fault,” he said. “Maybe I was trying too hard. The defender hit me just when I was getting the ball and it popped out. It was perfect timing and I was history.

“Those things happen in big games, but that’s not a copout. I blame myself. I’m a senior and, instead of going out a winner, I have to share the win. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Nor will teammate Mark Carrier, who just minutes earlier had made the Trojans’ only interception of the day to apparently set up a game-winning drive. “We didn’t want no tie,” Carrier said. “We wanted a win. We didn’t play our butts off for a tie.”

But that’s what they got on an afternoon when it wasn’t hard to tell the winners from the losers, no matter what the scoreboard read.

USC-UCLA Notes

The tie ends the Trojans’ 19-game conference winning streak. It is the second longest in conference history, tying UCLA. The record is held by Cal, winners of 22 in a row from 1947 to 1950 . . . The Bruins won 19 conference games in a row from 1953-56 . . . Saturday’s sellout was the fifth consecutive in the series . . . USC leads the series 33-19-7 . . . USC’s Junior Seau suffered a minor shoulder separation, but finished the game and is expected to play in the Rose Bowl.