PASADENA, Calif. - UCLA tight end Marcedes Lewis was determined that the pack of Arizona defenders would not keep him out of the end zone.
He didn't want to have to face his coaches if he failed to cross the goal line.
"I knew I was going to get in. If I didn't, I knew I'd be cussed out when I got to the sideline," Marcedes Lewis said with a smile after the Bruins beat the Wildcats 37-17 on Saturday.
The win was the fourth straight by UCLA (4-1, 2-0 Pac-10) after ending a six-game losing streak that included a five-game slump to end last season.
Arizona (1-4, 0-1) lost its fourth in a row.
Marcedes Lewis caught three of Drew Olson's four touchdown passes, making a circus grab of the first and scoring the second on the rugby scrum-like push over the goal line.
He caught that pass around the Arizona 3 and bounced backward a couple of yards when he collided with cornerback Antoine Cason. Marcedes Lewis stumbled, put his hand down to regain his balance, then surged forward.
As he churned his legs, two, then three, then four defenders tried to push him back. Finally, with UCLA teammates trying to block the Wildcats off him, the whole group slowly churned into the end zone.
"The first dude came up and hit me, and I thought, `I'm not going down," Marcedes Lewis said. "Then I took the hole, jumped in there and started driving and pushing. It all worked out."
A 6-foot-6, 255-pound junior, Marcedes Lewis finished with career highs in touchdowns, receptions (six) and yards (99). He made a spectacular falling grab in the back of the end zone for his first touchdown of the day, then wrapped it up with a routine catch for his third.
"He made some unbelievable plays," Arizona coach Mike Stoops said. "He's a great player. I love his athletic ability and his range.
"He went up a couple of times when we were all over him and made great catches. He single-handedly got us."
Not exactly. Olson and the rest of the Bruins helped, too.
Arizona bottled up the Bruins' ground game, holding Maurice Drew to 22 yards -- 145 below his average -- on 11 carries. Olson took up the slack by completing 17 of 25 passes for 234 yards.
He connected with Marcedes Lewis on scoring plays of 16, 12 and 18 yards, and with Michael Pitre for a 28-yard TD. The four TDs were a career high for the junior quarterback.
"A great performance on his part," UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said. "He made some great decisions and some great throws."
UCLA moved in front to stay when linebacker Chris Horton blocked Danny Baugher's punt and the ball bounced through the end zone for a safety just 1:45 into the game.
The Bruins opened a 23-3 lead by halftime on the way to beating Arizona for the fourth time in their last four meetings.
UCLA's defense, led by linebacker Spencer Havner, limited Arizona to Nick Folk's 41-yard field goal in the first half. Havner finished the game with 11 tackles and a sack.
The Wildcats were able to run the ball on UCLA's young defensive line, vulnerable so far this year. Arizona's Mike Bell gained 134 yards on 21 carries, and backup tailback Chris Henry scored on runs of 1 and 2 yards in the third quarter.
On Marcedes Lewis' first touchdown, he went up in the back of the end zone, fought with safety Lamon Means for the ball, then juggled it before he fell forward over Means, finally clutching the ball just inside the back line.
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