By Kevin Pham

Staff Writer

  In the highly anticipated football game between the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles on Nov. 17, UCLA seized a win, 34-27.

  Last season, the game was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with USC coming on top and securing their third win in a row, 28-23. This year, to redeem themselves for the game, UCLA had to work tirelessly to attempt to break USC’s winning streak.

  The Trojans went into the game extremely confident in their abilities because of UCLA’s season record of 2 wins out of 8 games.

  Quarterbacks JT Daniels and Wilton Speight from USC and UCLA respectively started off the first quarter. After an intense battle UCLA gained an impressive lead, 14-3.

  When the second quarter started, USC’s wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown scored a 44-yard touchdown that gave the Trojans a boost of momentum in their quest to diminish the lead from UCLA.

  At the end of the second quarter, USC was slowly creeping up to UCLA; however, UCLA was still leading, 24-21.

  The Bruins could not find an answer to defend against the Trojans’ aggressive offense as USC gained another 3 points during the third quarter while their score remained stagnant, 24-24.

  USC took the lead for a little while when they scored a field goal during the third quarter. In order to combat USC’s offense, UCLA turned to their running back, Joshua Kelley; his one-yard rushing touchdown and his 55-yard burst gave the Bruins lead. It became USC’s turn to attempt to tie the game as they sent in Daniels.

  When the game was down to the last 30 seconds, Daniels threw what looked to be a possible touchdown, but unfortunately, it was incomplete and did not reach the end zone.

  UCLA gained 13 points during the last quarter while USC gained 0, allowing UCLA to secure the win, 34-27.

  “We don’t have a lot of things and we don’t have a lot of numbers, but keep [we] playing,” stated UCLA Head Coach Chip Kelly. “We’ve got to play to our strengths.”

  According to Sports Illustrated, since this is USC’s sixth loss of their season, they risk the possibility of having a season that ends early.

  On the other hand, despite their win, UCLA’s standing in their league, Pac-12 South, is second to last out of 6 schools. Their chances of making it to the offseason are extremely slim, however, this win towards their rival school gives UCLA players a boost of confidence that could be carried out for the rest of the season.

  USC Head Coach Clay Helton stated, “I’m pretty heartbroken for our kids. But we have a game left, an important game for our seniors.”