A Very Good Win for Bruins : College football: Goodwin’s end-zone interception in final minute puts UCLA in the Rose Bowl, 27-21.

UCLA beat back a furious USC assault on its goal line in the final minute Saturday at the Coliseum, defeating the Trojans, 27-21, and securing its first trip to the Rose Bowl game since Jan. 1, 1986.

UCLA strong safety Marvin Goodwin intercepted a Rob Johnson pass in the end zone with 50 seconds remaining, after Johnson had taken the Trojans 79 yards to the UCLA two-yard line. Most of it came on a 43-yard pass play that put USC on UCLA’s three with 1:16 to go.

USC gained little on two Shawn Walters running plays, then Johnson threw a ball into a crowd of three Bruins, trying to find tight end Tyler Cashman, but Goodwin was there.

Jubilant Bruin players bounded onto the field and launched an early Rose Bowl celebration.

And when UCLA quarterback Wayne Cook downed the ball three times to make it official, the party started all over again.

The Bruins’ victory, before 93,458, ended a 10-game losing streak to USC when the Rose Bowl is on the line for both schools.

The Trojans trailed, 17-0, at the half, but they made it interesting with two quick touchdowns early in the third quarter to make the score 17-14.

UCLA pounded USC all afternoon with a Ricky Davis-led running game. Davis, a 5-foot-8 senior who was the No. 4 UCLA tailback a month ago, had 90 yards at halftime and finished with 153.

But USC took this game into the final minute with a running game so inept it finished with a net seven yards. UCLA had 230. Its passing game was also under a constant UCLA assault.

Johnson had another high-percentage day, 23 for 36 for 307 yards, but he was sacked seven times and threw the interception.

That was probably the most unlikely thing that happened Saturday. The interception was only Johnson’s fifth this year in 405 attempts.

UCLA’s offensive line dominated USC’s tackles for the most part, creating holes for Davis and Skip Hicks, who had 52 yards in 14 carries.

The official postgame Rose Bowl invitation took about 14 seconds. Bud Griest, Tournament of Roses treasurer, began by saying to UCLA Coach Terry Donahue:

“On behalf of the Tournament of Roses Committee, it gives me great pleasure to invite you to the. . . .”

At that point, Donahue interrupted him, saying: “We accept.”

USC Coach John Robinson then offered Donahue the use of his Pasadena condominium--five minutes from the Rose Bowl--for December.

UCLA finished the season 8-3 overall, 6-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

The Trojans, whose three-game winning streak ended, finished 7-5 and tied for conference championship at 6-2.

And the Trojans hope they are headed for the Dec. 24 John Hancock Bowl in El Paso.

“I’m pretty sure that’s what’ll happen,” USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett said.

Johnson became the first USC quarterback to go over 3,000 passing yards in one season. It was the second consecutive USC-UCLA game in which he threw the pass that ended the Trojans’ final opportunity to win.

In last year’s game at the Rose Bowl, it was an incomplete two-point conversion pass with 41 seconds left that ensured a 38-37 UCLA victory. Saturday, Johnson seemed to step confidently into a pass directed to Cashman that would have tied the score with 50 seconds to play.

But Goodwin, on a play USC calls “Bruin pass,” picked it off, and soon the junior quarterback trudged disconsolately up the Coliseum tunnel.

Later, he said: “I said before the season this would not be a successful season if we didn’t beat UCLA. It wasn’t a successful season.”

It seemed early to the sellout crowd--the remodeled Coliseum’s first full house for college football--that UCLA had a chance at a runaway. The Bruins, opening huge holes in USC’s line, scored on long drives the first two times they had the ball. The first touchdown was a five-yard keeper by Cook, the second a four-yarder up the middle by Hicks.

And when Bjorn Merten kicked a 47-yard field goal as the half ended, UCLA was ahead, 17-0. At the half, UCLA had 151 running yards, USC minus one.

But USC struck quickly on two big-play drives to open the third quarter. Johnson went to wide receiver Ken Grace on a 52-yard play to UCLA’s one, from which Walters scored. After Erroll Small recovered Bryan Adams’ fumble of a punt, USC was set up at UCLA’s 11.

The touchdown was a nine-yard Johnson pass to tight end Johnny McWilliams, cutting UCLA’s lead to 17-14. And when Merten missed a 32-yard field goal late in the third quarter, USC seemed poised to strike.

But UCLA’s George Kase and Miller sacked Johnson twice on the next Trojan series, setting up Adams’ 32-yard return of a 50-yard John Stonehouse punt to USC’s 36. Four plays later, Cook threw a perfect pass to J.J. Stokes in the end zone.

It was Stokes’ 17th touchdown catch of the season, tying the conference record that Washington’s Mario Bailey set in 1991.

Johnson brought USC back again, to within 24-21, with a six-yard pass to Brad Banta, with 13:33 to play.

UCLA’s final score was a 20-yard Merten field goal with 6:12 to go, giving the Bruins a six-point lead and the Trojans a chance to get to Pasadena with a touchdown.

They didn’t quite make it.