USC Defense Stout in 38-10 Victory

LOS ANGELES -- The USC Trojans (5-1) rebounded from its first loss of the season as they cruised to a 38-10 victory over the Oregon State Beavers (1-5), Saturday afternoon at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Although the final margin of victory equaled four touchdowns, the home team did not look impressive on offense while getting the win. Sam Darnold threw for 316 yards and three touchdowns but the team left some points on the field. The Trojan's Heisman-hopeful quarterback was marred by some sloppy ball handling on the day, as he threw one interception and fumbled twice.

USC opened the game with an easy 78 yard scoring drive that lasted three minutes and 38 seconds. Darnold looked sharp early on, completing all three pass attempts for 50 yards, culminating in a 37 yard touchdown pass to Tyler Vaughn.

On Oregon State's first drive, USC defensive back Jack Jones intercepted a pass from Darell Garretson on the Beaver's 32 yard line, which gave the home team a short field. The Trojans took advantage of that short field, as Ronald Jones scored a touchdown on a four-yard carry. Jones has now scored a touchdown, either rushing or receiving, in last 12 games. Jones finished the game with 79 yards on 12 carries.

After the Trojan defense held the Beavers to a 3 and out, then forced them to punt on the next possession, USC's Ajene Harris muffed the punt at his own 29 yard line, giving the Beavers the ball in scoring position. However, the Trojan defense, once again, held its ground and didn't give up a yard. On fourth down, a 47 yard field goal attempt was blocked by the tandem of Jack Jones and Kenny Bigelow Jr.

On the ensuing possession, the football slipped out of Darnold's hands for a fumble recovered by OSU in prime scoring position. Just as they had before, the Trojans defense prevented a first down. The Beavers attempted a 37 yard field goal but missed it wide left.

The Beavers scored three points to open the second quarter. The Trojans then marched 77 yards down the field. The drive was aided by a roughing the kicker penalty, which the Trojans capitalized on by throwing a 16 yard touchdown pass to Deontay Burnett to extend its lead to 21-3.

This game was a testament to just how good the USC defense is. The Beavers moved through the gridiron where they went for it on 4th and 2 at USC 15 but was stopped just short of the down marker.

As USC appeared to be headed toward the end zone, Darnold turned the ball over again as he misread Beaver linebacker Manase Hungalu's coverage and his pass was intercepted.

USC went into the halftime break with an 18-point lead.

The Trojan's most impressive offensive drive came on their opening possession of the second half. USC started with the ball on its own nine yard line and took 91 yards down the field for a score. A fourth down conversion was the key play of drive. Darnold completed a pass to Steven Mitchell Jr. for eight yards to the Oregon State 30. From there, Darnold threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Josh Falo to put them up 28-3. It was Falo's first career reception.

With the game out of hand, USC head coach Clay Helton got some of his lesser used players some game action. Freshman quarterback Matt Fink made the most of his first collegiate appearance when he kept the ball on a read option and raced down the sideline for a 51-yard score.

After the game coach Helton pointed out that getting players like Fink and Falo game action as the silver lining in this matchup. 13 different players had a reception for the Trojans on Saturday afternoon.

The Trojans have a tough conference matchup against Utah (4-1) next Saturday night.

Ducks get Home Cooking on the Road to Beat Trojans

Jordan Bell looks to drive

William Johnson/T.G.Sportstv1/

LOS ANGELES -- The Oregon Ducks (22-4), with the help of two local players, stymied a comeback from the USC Trojans (21-5) to win 81-70 Saturday night. It was the Ducks' 14th consecutive win over the Trojans.

Looking to rebound after blowing a 19-point lead to UCLA and losing in its previous game, the Oregon Ducks almost wasted another double-digit lead in Los Angeles. Down by 10 with just under six minutes to play, USC cut the deficit to three when Bennie Boatwright sank a pair of free throws following Oregon's All-American candidate Dillon Brooks' fifth foul of the game with just over three minutes remaining.

Los Angles native, Tyler Dorsey, then took over the game for the Ducks by nailing two threes within a two-minute span. The first came as the shot clock ticked to zero after a controversial out of bounds call that kept possession with the visitors. USC's Elijah Stewart, who scored 15 for the Trojans, answered with a deep shot to cut it back to three. Oregon's other Southern California player, Jordan Bell, made a layup then USC called a timeout.

After an empty USC possession, the Ducks found Dorsey in transition, which he pulled up from deep and essentially put the Trojans away.

"When Dillon fouled out, we still had the confidence that we would find a way to win," said Dorsey. "We had a next-man-up mentality."

Both teams started this game off cold from the field. Oregon was 5 for 19 and USC was 3 for 15 with 10:36 left in the 1st half. Then the Ducks proceeded to make seven consecutive shots to give them the largest lead of the game, 26-15, at the 6 minute mark. However, the Trojans closed the half strong and trailed 35-33 at the break.

Both teams decided to push the tempo and run at the outset of the second half. Oregon struck first with a three by Brooks. The tide turned for USC when McLaughlin threw an incredible lob from half court to Stewart, who caught it, stuffed it, and threw the crowd into a frenzy. Back-to-back threes from Stewart and McLaughlin gave the Trojans a lead they would have for a short while.

Bell scored 10 points in the second half for the Ducks, doing what he can to prevent his team's first losing streak of the season as he finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

"It was very important to get a win," said Bell. "We took an 'L' against UCLA so we wanted to bounce back. We didn't want to leave with a two-game road trip loss."

Brooks led the Ducks in scoring with 21 points. Dorsey scored 19, including four makes from downtown. Oregon trails Arizona by one game in the race for the Pac-12 regular season title, they host Utah on Thursday.

Chimezie Metu led the way for the Trojans with 16 points, Boatwright and Stewart both chipped in with 15 each. USC is in the midst of its toughest stretch of the season. They go on the road for the next two games to play UCLA and Arizona, respectively.

USC Trojans 45, Oregon Ducks 20

LOS ANGELES -- A day before clocks are to be turned back by an hour in the fall, USC Trojans turned back the clock in the Los Angeles Coliseum and plucked the Oregon Ducks' feathers. The Trojans, behind a strong defensive effort and a running game defeated the Ducks 45-20 on homecoming night. USC's defense set the tone for the game as it thwarted the Oregon attack and forced three consecutive three-and-outs to begin the contest.

That enabled the Trojans to jump out to a 17-0 lead, which was never in danger. The Ducks, known for having an explosive offense, were held under 300 total yards by the Trojans, including only 85 on the ground. Oregon entered the game averaging 248 rushing yards per game.

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"That is a really good rushing team," said USC's Head Coach Clay Helton. "One of the things [defensive coordinator] Coach [Clancy] Pendergast does is focus on taking the strength away from the team. The other thing we talked about was getting off the field on third down. We thought that was critical."

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USC Trojans 21, Colorado Buffaloes 17

LOS ANGELES -- The USC Trojans defeated the 21st ranked Colorado Buffaloes 21-17 Saturday afternoon with some key plays by redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Darnold and All American Adoree Jackson. The Trojans offense had their way with the Buffaloes, who entered the game ranked for the first time since 2005, but you wouldn’t know by looking at the final score.

Darnold led USC down the field on its opening drive and it appeared the home team would scratch the scoreboard early but they turned the ball over when Darnold scrambled from 18 and fumbled on the goal line. The turnover seemed to be the popular play of the game for the Trojans.

“It’s hard to win with four turnovers,” said USC head coach Clay Helton.

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