MALDONADO_VS._UCLA.JPG

Oregon kicker Alejandro Maldonado is 3-for-5 on field goals this season, with both of his misses coming from 37-yards, including this one against UCLA.

(Bruce Ely/The Oregonian)

EUGENE -- When they speak to each other on the phone -- Alejandro Maldonado in Eugene and his family in Colton, Calif. -- they often speak in white lies.

Alejandro, the Oregon kicker who said he thought about quitting at halftime of the Ducks last game, tells them everything is fine.

And the family, struggling in a tough economy, tells him everything is fine.

There is a deep love within the family, one that Ducks linebacker Derrick Malone said he couldn’t help but notice while growing up with Maldonado in Colton, and they use the white lies to insulate themselves from realities of life, which they find can be as cold, and stubborn, as a crossbar on the football field.

“We have to make it somehow, right?’’ Maldonado said.

He calls himself a fighter -- a trait he says he gets from his mother Gabriela Flores -- and for the greater part of the last week, he is in the struggle of his career as he fights to regain his confidence.

Like most kickers, Maldonado is known more for his misses than his makes, but his 37-yard attempt near the end of the first half against UCLA on Oct. 26 shook him deeper than any other.

So deep, in fact, he said he thought of quitting.

“It really hit me hard,’’ Maldonado said on Sunday. “You get tired of it ... tired of being there.’’

“There” is that feeling of letting people down. Of failing to live up to your own expectations. Of having to deal with the fallout of missing an important kick.

Maldonado, of course, has experience with being “there.” Against USC in 2011, he missed a 37-yard field goal on the game’s final play that could have tied the score. Last season against Stanford, he missed a 42-yard field goal wide right, then in overtime he hit the left upright from 41-yards. If he makes the kicks, perhaps the Ducks play in one, maybe two, more national championships.

Instead, Maldonado received death threats. Insults. And he is now sometimes booed at Autzen Stadium.

At halftime against the Bruins, with the Ducks still tied at 14 because Maldonado’s kick drifted right with three seconds left, Maldonado said he let some teammates know that he was struggling with his confidence, struggling with his past, struggling with his place on a team striving for perfection.

He said he never wanted to quit after the USC miss. And he didn’t feel like this after the Stanford misses. For some reason, this one got to him.

“You want to give up,’’ Maldonado said. “You want to find the easy way out.’’

But then he thought of his mother, working every day, cleaning the homes of the elderly in Colton. Her mind, Maldonado said, was always on paying bills. Always on staying afloat. Every day, Maldonado emphasized again, she works. Even on weekends.

It stayed with him.

“You can’t give up, you can’t quit,’’ Maldonado said. “Even when the grind is grinding on you, when every weight is on top of you, you got to find a way to lift it and keep moving forward. That’s the way I’ve been raised. It’s that simple, really. You have to keep working to get out of your hole.’’

On the field, Maldonado’s struggles couldn’t be surfacing at a more crucial time. The No. 2 Ducks on Thursday play at No. 6 Stanford. A Pac-12 North title, and a trip to the national championship, could hang in the balance. And it could very well rest on his right foot.

“I’m doing well in practice,’’ Maldonado assured on Sunday. “It shouldn’t be any different in the game.’’

That’s what he said his teammates told him at halftime of the UCLA game, when he confided to a small group that he was struggling. They told him they have seen him make so many in practice that they had confidence in him. He went out for the second half and made both of his extra point attempts and had one punt for 35 yards.

Whether Oregon coach Mark Helfrich has the same confidence will be revealed on Thursday.

His other option is true freshman Matt Wogan, who has longer range than Maldonado -- he made a 51-yarder in fall camp -- but is not as accurate. Throughout the season, Helfrich has alternated between the two kickers for extra points while seemingly sticking to the scouting report for field goals: Maldonado is 3-for-5, with no attempt longer than 37 yards, and Wogan has made his only attempt - a 38-yarder against Tennessee.

Helfrich may also opt to go for it, like he did in the second quarter against UCLA. With the Ducks up 14-7, Helfrich faced a 4th-and-2 from the UCLA 17. Conventional wisdom says kick the 34-yard field goal and go up two scores. But at Oregon, nothing is conventional, and Helfrich went for it, saying later the team was “rolling” and he thought they had a play that could net a touchdown. The play failed, with Marcus Mariota overthrowing Bralon Addison in the end zone. He said a multitude of factors go into that decision, making each case unique.

Maldonado on Sunday was saying he is healthy, mentally and physically.

“My mind is right,’’ he assured.

On the phone with his family -- father Francisco Cardenas, sisters Kathy and Elisa and brother German -- he said he never brought up UCLA. Never talked about halftime.

“I don’t even tell them that I’m struggling, or if I want to quit, or if I want to keep going,’’ Maldonado said. “I just tell them I’m doing fine. I don’t want them to worry. Same thing with them: they don’t really tell me what is going on at the house. They say everything is fine, even though I know things aren’t like that. There’s a lot going on with both of us, but we have to keep going, and move forward.’’

That has been his motto for the past week: move forward. He says he is no longer at that frustrated and uncertain place he found himself during halftime of UCLA.

“At that time, I just wanted to prove to the whole world that that’s not who I am,’’ Maldonado said. “I want to show I am this person, one who finishes. And that’s what I have to do: finish and trust my leg. When I tell myself that, it happens.’’