There’s No Mistaking It: Arizona St. for Real in Beating USC, 29-20

A few mistakes during the course of a football game are sometimes meaningless, but they become magnified against a mistake-free team.

USC learned that it couldn’t make any mistakes against Arizona State Saturday at the Coliseum.

The errors the Trojans did make became critical as the sound Sun Devils won, 29-20, before a Coliseum homecoming crowd of 65,874.

So Arizona State, the only unbeaten team in the Pacific 10 with a 3-0-1 record, 5-0-1 overall, has enhanced its chances of going to the Rose Bowl for the first time. The Sun Devils joined the conference in 1978.

Arizona State Coach John Cooper has said that the road to the Rose Bowl is “through Trojan and Bruin land.” The Sun Devils have laid waste to those territories, beating both USC and UCLA on their home fields this season.

The Sun Devils, after three games on the road, return home for four games, two against mediocre nonconference opponents, Utah and Wichita State, before their climactic, final game with Arizona Nov. 22 at Tucson.

Arizona State didn’t have a turnover against USC, and the Sun Devils have fumbled only four times all season, losing one of them. USC had only two turnovers, and the last one prevented Coach Ted Tollner’s team from staying in contention in what was generally regarded as a highly entertaining, close encounter.

The Trojans trailed, 22-20, early in the fourth quarter when quarterback Rodney Peete threw a screen pass to Aaron Emanuel from the USC 20-yard line.

The tailback surged for an apparent first down but fumbled the ball away to Arizona State defensive tackle Trace Armstrong at the USC 26-yard line.

Arizona State didn’t squander the opportunity. Jeff Van Raaphorst, a poised quarterback the entire afternoon, threw a touchdown pass to tight end Jeff Gallimore on third and seven from the USC nine-yard line.

That touchdown and subsequent extra point with 7:51 left took care of the Trojans. USC couldn’t do anything on its next series, and Arizona State kept the ball for four minutes on its possession.

“I was trying to spin off and made a quick move, and someone put a helmet on the ball,” said Emanuel, who has lost six fumbles this season.

But the sophomore tailback said he was not going to let the errors haunt him.

“I just have to keep fighting hard,” he said. “I can’t let it affect me mentally.”

Now it’s a question, though, of USC’s mental state the rest of the season. The Trojans started fast last month, winning their first four games. But consecutive losses to Washington State and Arizona State have left USC with a 2-2 conference record, 4-2 overall.

Since the conference was founded under another name in 1916, only four teams have won the championship with as many as two losses.

“Arizona State is obviously in the driver’s seat,” Tollner said. “We have two losses and we’ll have to fight for everything we can. We can’t talk in terms of championships now.”

Tollner wouldn’t downgrade his team, saying, “It was an outstanding game, and you have to make the plays against a good football team. We came out on the short end, but there were no losers. That’s my philosophical approach. I’m proud of our guys.”

USC didn’t make a carload of errors as it did in the past six quarters against Oregon and Washington State with 10 turnovers. But the Trojans made just enough. A sampling:

--After the teams each kicked two field goals, the Sun Devils kicked off to the Trojans in the second quarter. Arizona State employed sort of a bloop kick, not a planned onside kick.

Nevertheless, USC didn’t cover it, and Arizona State’s Robby Boyd recovered at the USC 34-yard line. Van Raaphorst struck immediately, throwing a pass to split end Aaron Cox, who gathered it in behind free safety Junior Thurman and scored easily.

“A freshman (Scott Galbraith) just panicked a little bit and ran away from the ball,” Tollner said.

Cooper said: “The kick wasn’t as deep as we instructed. It just got held up in the wind.”

The Trojans tied the game by halftime, 13-13, on a 76-yard drive in which Peete completed 6 of 7 passes for 62 yards. Fullback Leroy Holt scored from the one-yard line at 13:29 of the second quarter.

--Arizona State drove to the USC 10 at the outset of the third quarter. On fourth and two, Kent Bostrom attempted a 27-yard field goal, but the kick went wide.

However, USC strong safety Tim McDonald was cited for running into the kicker, a five-yard penalty that gave Arizona State a reprieve and a first down.

Fullback Channing Williams went outside, broke tackles by McDonald and linebacker Marcus Cotton and scored. Bostrom then missed the extra point, as he had the field goal, and the Sun Devils led, 19-13.

“I was blocked into the kicker,” McDonald said, “but it doesn’t matter under the new interpretation of the rules. That play is part of their offense.”

McDonald meant that Arizona State has benefited four times this season from running-into- , or roughing-the-kicker penalties.

Arizona State extended its lead to 22-13 with 2:37 left in the third quarter on Bostrom’s 21-yard field goal.

But the Trojans counter-marched, with Emanuel finally finding some running room against an Arizona State defense that is ranked No. 1 in the conference in scoring defense, a previous 12.8-points-a-game average.

On fourth and one at the ASU 10-yard line, Peete faked a handoff to fullback Todd Steele and streaked to the outside. Not only did he get a first down, he went all the way into the end zone, barely making the corner. Don Shafer’s extra point cut the deficit to 22-20 with 13:26 left in the game.

A little later, though, Emanuel’s fumble gave Arizona State the advantage for good.

Cooper, in his second year as Arizona State’s coach after a successful tenure at Tulsa, has a team that resembles Washington in execution: Not many frills and not many mistakes.

Van Raaphorst threw five interceptions against Washington State, a 21-21 tie, but he has only six for the season. He completed 13 of 22 passes for 184 yards and 2 touchdowns Saturday and wasn’t sacked. He’s not as quick as Peete, but Tollner said the Trojans broke down in containment, and Van Raaphorst escaped one trap after another while picking up some vital yardage on scrambles.

The Sun Devils also had a sound running game as tailback Darryl Harris gained 73 yards and Williams added 41 more.

Arizona State had an edge in total offense, 395 yards to 317 for USC.

Emanuel could gain only 57 yards in 19 carries and didn’t have a run longer than 9 yards against ASU’s tough defense.

Peete, however, was productive as a passer. He completed 19 of 36 for 226 yards while throwing one interception. That mistake, a ball thrown into the middle while he was rolling out, set up ASU’s first field goal in the opening quarter.

Another miscue--USC linebacker Rex Moore’s failure to intercept a pass at the Arizona State 35-yard line in the second quarter--let the Sun Devils off the hook as they sustained a field goal drive.

Van Raaphorst overthrew a receiver, and the ball struck Moore in the hands, but he couldn’t hold it.

“I was looking at the receiver when the ball came to me,” a disconsolate Moore said. “I’m sorry, but I’m not a very gracious loser.”

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for USC in the next two weeks, with road games at Stanford and Arizona.

Peete sounded an optimistic note, though, saying: “We’re not out of it. There are so many tough teams in the conference.”

He probably meant that the Trojans might get some help--and, in turn, they have to help themselves.