USC Goes Long Way to Pasadena : Trojans: Ervins and Marinovich, reserves before season, lead team past Arizona, 24-3, and into Rose Bowl game.

The Rose Bowl is just a short drive from downtown Los Angeles, but, less than three months ago, it seemed to some doubters unreachable from the Coliseum.

The USC Trojans were hurting, a team with more questions than answers, more holes than heroes. Their offensive leader was gone. So was a key defensive player.

And the leaders of the future couldn’t even get to the top of the depth chart.

Was it really less than three months ago? Todd Marinovich was second on the chart at quarterback. Ricky Ervins was third at tailback. And Junior Seau was just an attractive package of potential.

Dark days seemed ahead, especially after a season-opening loss to Illinois.

Yet Saturday, in the bright sunshine of Arizona Stadium, these three players led the Trojans to a 24-3 victory over Arizona and a third consecutive berth in the Rose Bowl game, highlighting an incredible season for each.

Marinovich, the redshirt freshman who inherited the starting job when Pat O’Hara went down with a season-ending knee injury just 10 days before the opener, continued to run the offense with the confidence and ability that may make him the Pacific 10 Conference player of the year.

He completed 11 of 19 passes for 168 yards and rushed for a touchdown.

Ervins carried 21 times for 151 yards to give him 1,096 this season, the 18th time a Trojan has rushed for 1,000 yards. It was also Ervins’ seventh 100-yard game of the season, the most since Marcus Allen had 11 in 1981.

And Seau? What can you say about the player who has dominated a defense that was already rated among the nation’s best when the season began?

Marinovich put it best: “When he hits you, you say, ‘ ‘Ow.’ ”

After nose guard Don Gibson went down with a season-ending injury before the opener. Seau stepped in to lead a defensive front that entered play No. 1 in the nation against the run.

Ervins was modest in the Trojan locker room, speaking softly while his teammates were busy celebrating another trip to Pasadena.

“I think any back in my position could have done what I did,” he said. “There are so many great backs around here, any one of them could have gotten 1,000 yards.”

But Ervins, from Muir High in Pasadena, admitted he never doubted he would be the one if he only he could rise to the top of the depth chart.

“When you have doubts,” he said, “you don’t get what you want.”

But still, he said, his performance in his second game was reassuring. Against Utah State that night, he rushed for 180 yards.

“I knew then,” he said, “I could run the ball at the college level.”

He started out Saturday’s game as if he would exceed even that brilliant evening. On USC’s first play from scrimmage, Ervins broke over right tackle and ran for 50 yards before being pushed out of bounds on the one by Richard Holt.

But the Wildcat defense closed up and the best the Trojans could do was a 24-yard field goal by Quin Rodriguez.

USC had at least shown it could move the ball against Arizona, but the bigger question remained. Could the Wildcats, leading the Pacific 10 in rushing with an average of 245.2 yards per game and a flashy offense known as the I-bone, move the ball on the Trojans, who were allowing just 51.9 yards on the ground per game?

The answer was a resounding no .

While the Wildcats were able to break into triple figures with 158 yards rushing, only the second club to do that all year against USC, they failed to put the ball into the end zone.

Only Doug Pfaff’s 26-yard field goal in the fourth quarter prevented a shutout.

While Arizona’s I-bone opened some holes, the Wildcat passing game, behind quarterback Ronald Veal, was a disaster. Pressured all day, Veal completed only six of 16 for 16 yards, the lowest passing total surrendered by a Trojan club since Iowa was held to minus 11 yards in 1976.

Yet this remained a game well into the third quarter.

Leroy Holt dove in from one yard out in the second quarter, but the Trojans, with Marinovich plagued by penalties and an inability to hit several open receivers, couldn’t get more before halftime.

USC had one final shot on the last play of the half, but Rodriguez’s 39-yard field goal attempt bounced off the left upright.

Marinovich added to the lead in the third quarter. Faced with a third-and-goal at the one, he changed the play at the line and tried to carry the ball over himself.

He disappeared into a pile of Wildcats, but when he emerged, the officials ruled he was still inches short.

“My body wasn’t across,” he said, “but what the officials couldn’t see was that my arm with the ball was.”

On fourth down, Coach Larry Smith sent in the same play and, this time, Marinovich made it.

USC finally had a comfortable lead at 17-0, but Arizona nearly got back into the game later in the quarter.

USC’s Zuri Hector ran into punter John Nies, drawing a flag that gave the Wildcats life.

“I got in so fast,” Hector said, “that it seemed like I passed him. It seemed like he was kicking through me. I thought I hit the ball. If I did hit him, it was barely.

“Everybody said not to worry about it. It doesn’t seem that important now, as long as we are back in the Rose Bowl.”

It did at the time.

Especially when running back David Eldridge, Arizona’s second-leading rusher with 55 yards despite playing with a pulled hamstring, picked up 35 on the first play after the punting penalty.

But the best Arizona could get out of the drive was Pfaff’s field goal.

However, USC seemed unwilling to finally, unequivocally, claim their spot in Pasadena for New Year’s Day.

On the next series, Marinovich threw his only interception of the day, the ball tipped by Chris Wright, then off the arm of intended receiver John Jackson, and finally into the grasp of Todd Burden.

This time, Arizona got down as far as the USC 15 before Errol Sapp threw away the Wildcats’ last chance.

Literally.

He grabbed the ball and fired it. Unfortunately for Arizona, time was out and Sapp was throwing it in anger at a USC lineman.

Sapp was slapped with a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and Arizona never recovered.

“We had a chance to win in the fourth and we got a taunting penalty,” Arizona Coach Dick Tomey said. “That is the first time I have seen it in my life. They said Sapp threw the ball at the guy who tackled him. That’s a tough one.”

Arizona lost 11 yards on its next two plays and Tomey opted for a 56-yard field goal attempt, a seemingly strange choice considering the Wildcats needed 14 points at the time in what was their last gasp of a season that brought them closer to the Rose Bowl than ever before.

Had they won, then beaten Arizona State in their final game with UCLA upsetting USC next week, it would have the Wildcats winning the war of the roses.

Instead Nies’ 56-yard field goal attempt was short and the Trojans, adding one more touchdown on a five-yard run by Ervins, were cruising back to Pasadena.

Amazing sometimes how far you can go in just three months.

USC Notes

The Trojans are 8-2, 6-0 in conference. Arizona falls to 6-4, 4-3 in the Pac 10. . . . USC linebacker Scott Ross sprained knee ligaments and is doubtful for next week’s game against UCLA. . . . The Trojans’ 19th consecutive conference win ties UCLA (1953-56) for the second longest such streak. The record is 22 by the California teams of 1947-50. . . . For at least another season, Arizona will remain the only Pac-10 school to have never played in a Rose Bowl. . . . The Wildcats started play unbeaten at home this season through five games. Had they won, it would have been their first perfect home season since 1961. . . . USC has won 15 of 16 games against Arizona, including all five played here. . . . The only Arizona win came in 1981 when the Wildcats upset the top-ranked Trojans, 13-10, at the Coliseum. Arizona’s head coach that day was Larry Smith.

ROSE BOWL RACE PACIFIC 10

Team Conf. Overall W L T W L T PF PA USC 6 0 0 8 2 0 309 112 Ariz. St. 3 2 1 6 3 1 231 230 Oregon 4 3 0 6 4 0 322 206 Washington 4 3 0 6 4 0 278 209 Arizona 4 3 0 6 4 0 203 158 Oregon St. 3 3 1 4 5 1 165 304 Wash. St. 3 4 0 6 4 0 342 248 California 2 5 0 4 6 0 186 264 UCLA 2 5 0 3 7 0 199 236 Stanford 2 5 0 2 8 0 163 244

SATURDAY’S RESULTS USC 24, Arizona 3 Oregon 38, UCLA 20 Washington 51, Oregon St. 14 California 38, Washington St. 26 Arizona St. 30, Stanford 22 NEXT SATURDAY’S GAMES UCLA at USC California at Stanford Washington St. at Washington Oregon St. at Oregon BIG TEN

Team Conf. Overall W L T W L T PF PA Michigan 6 0 0 8 1 0 248 134 Ohio St. 5 1 0 7 2 0 265 216 Illinois 5 1 0 7 2 0 197 119 Mich. St. 4 2 0 5 4 0 216 133 Indiana 3 3 0 5 4 0 247 206 Minnesota 3 3 0 5 4 0 205 227 Iowa 2 4 0 4 5 0 166 235 Purdue 1 5 0 2 7 0 157 243 Wisconsin 1 5 0 2 7 0 147 268 Nrthwstrn 0 6 0 0 9 0 213 358

SATURDAY’S RESULTS Michigan 24, Illinois 10 Michigan St. 21, Minnesota 7 Indiana 45, Wisconsin 17 Ohio St. 28, Iowa 0 Purdue 46, Northwestern 15 NEXT SATURDAY’S GAMES Michigan at Minnesota Northwestern at Michigan St. Indiana at Illinois Iowa at Purdue Wisconsin at Ohio St.