Down 10-7 midway through the second quarter and strugling to get yards and points on the board, OSU brought in backup QB Steve Bellasari who rallied the Buckeyes in dramatic fashion to the somewhat shocking, lopsided victory before an excited, sold out crowd in only the fourth night game in Ohio Stadium history.

Bellasari was the spark that OSU needed after a sub par performance against Miami, Fla. in the Kickoff Classic. He ran for 50 yards on three carries and threw for 159 yards on 11-16 passing with two TD’s and no Int’s. All three of those runs were on third down and kept drives alive.

Buckeye starting QB Austin Moherman did better in this game than in the Miami game, as he completed 10 of 19 passes for 107 yards and one Int. The offense just wasn’t doing as well with him behind center compared to having Bellasari running the show. Bellasari led the Buckeye offense to 507 yards of total offense, as Michael Wiley led all rushers in the game with 119 yards on 12 carries and two TD’s on runs of three and five yards.

Ohio State’s defense did well containing UCLA’s high powered offense to a total of 365 yards. The Bruins’ two QB system worked well at times, but toward the end of the game, it faltered. Drew Bennet, the starter, was 9 of 15 with one Int and one TD for 138 yards. The one touchdown he threw for, on the fourth play of the game, was a fluke TD, as FB Matt Stanley (from Columbus, Ohio) caught a pass, that bounced off a teammate’s leg after the ball hit two Buckeye’s going for the interception, and raced for 67 yards to the end zone. Backup QB Corey Paus was 8 of 20 with one Int and no TD’s for 97 yards.

The Buckeye defense also came up up with three sacks to go along with the two interceptions. This unit held the well-known duo of WR’s, Danny Farmer and Brian Poli-Dixon, to a combined five catches for 77 yards.

Next up is Ohio U. at the Horseshoe on Sat., Sept. 18th in a game Ohio State is favored by 43 ½ points.