Thundering Heard, USC Wins : Trojans: Ervins runs for 199 yards against Ohio State in game called because of lightning with 2:36 to play.

Ohio State ripped out the artificial turf in Ohio Stadium last spring, replacing it with grass at a cost of $1 million.

On Saturday, USC and the elements tore up the new field.

The Trojans, who ranked ninth in the Pacific 10 Conference in rushing offense going into the game, ran for a season-high 331 yards in a 35-26 victory over Ohio State before that was stopped with 2:36 left because of the weather conditions, including torrential rains, thunder and lightning.

Against an Ohio State defense that allowed only 63 yards a game on the ground in victories over Texas Tech and Boston College, USC more than doubled its rushing output from its first three games.

Tailback Ricky Ervins led the way, rushing for a career-high 199 yards and two touchdowns before leaving the game in the third quarter with a mild sprain in his left ankle, sustained on the second play of the second half.

“There were some large holes,” said Ervins, who ran for more than 100 yards nine times in 12 games last season, but in three games this season had run for only 181, averaging 3.0 yards a carry. “The offensive line should be talking to you because they played tremendously.”

The game was stopped by mutual consent of the coaches after the Trojans recovered an onside kick by the Buckeyes.

Ohio State had pulled to within the final margin with 2:38 left, when quarterback Greg Frey passed to flanker Jeff Graham for a two-point conversion after tailback Raymont Harris’ one-yard touchdown run.

If Ohio State had recovered the kick, both coaches said afterward, the game would have continued.

And USC, in all probability, would have kept running.

The Trojans never trailed. They took a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter when Willie McGinest blocked a punt and Zuri Hector picked up the ball and carried it nine yards into the end zone.

On a day when quarterback Todd Marinovich again posted pedestrian numbers, completing 11 of 23 passes for 119 yards and throwing two interceptions, the Trojans enjoyed their most productive running game since last September, when they rushed for 491 yards in a 66-10 rout of Utah State.

After enduring “perhaps the hardest week of work I’ve ever seen a team go through,” as Coach Larry Smith described it, USC returned to basics after last week’s “disaster,” a 31-0 loss to Washington.

Said Ohio State Coach John Cooper: “They weren’t supposed to have a running attack, (but) they just hammered and hammered.”

After averaging a conference-worst 2.3 yards a carry in its first three games, USC battered Ohio State for 7.3 yards a try.

Scott Lockwood, making his first start at fullback, ran for 75 yards in five carries, including a 66-yard third-quarter touchdown run, and Mazio Royster, in relief of Ervins, ran for 70 yards in seven carries, including a 50-yard burst.

“I never thought it would be a fun game just running it,” Marinovich said, “but I had fun watching our (offensive linemen) come off the ball and hit people. I know our backs were thankful for it.”

Was Ohio State caught unaware?

“We were all keyed up to rush the quarterback 30 or 40 times,” nose guard Greg Smith said, “but it just didn’t happen.”

It was evident from the start that USC could run successfully. Ervins carried 28 yards on the Trojans’ second play.

Still, USC’s first possession ended after only three plays, when a pass by Marinovich was intercepted at the goal line, and its second went three plays and out as Marinovich was sacked on two consecutive plays.

The Trojans still scored first, though, after McGinest crashed through the Ohio State line and blocked a punt by Jeff Bohlman.

“An excellent effort on the part of McGinest,” Smith said. “He’s very quick and a great athlete. He just made the play.”

In its third possession, USC started to move, driving 80 yards to a touchdown to increase its lead to 14-0 on a 15-yard run by Ervins, who carried four times in the drive for 55 yards.

The Buckeyes closed to within 14-10 midway through the second quarter on a 46-yard field goal by freshman kicker Tim Williams and a 17-yard touchdown pass from Frey to split end Bobby Olive.

At that point, USC again reasserted itself, gaining 58 yards on the ground during a 73-yard drive that lasted almost seven minutes and ended with Ervins scoring on a one-yard run to make it 21-10 with 1:37 left in the half.

By halftime, Ervins had already run for 162 yards.

“I think Ricky took it upon himself (that) this was a personal challenge to him,” Smith said. “He didn’t feel like he was contributing that much and he’s a determined little guy, so I’m not surprised by what he did.

“He’d be the first to tell you, though, that the day was made possible by guys like (Mark) Tucker and (Pat) Harlow and some other offensive linemen who really started to put some people on their backs.”

Rain began at the start of the second half, but it didn’t deter the Trojans, who continued to roll.

Lockwood’s 66-yard run increased USC’s lead to 28-10.

Ohio State’s freshman tailback, Robert Smith, a native of Euclid, Ohio, who spurned USC to stay closer to home and play with the Buckeyes, then made a 20-yard run, his longest of a game in which he carried 12 times for 54 yards, to spark a 58-yard touchdown drive by the Buckeyes.

Frey, who completed 19 of 36 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns, passed 29 yards to Graham for a touchdown with 4:47 left in the quarter, then passed to Bernard Edwards for a two-point conversion.

It was 28-18 with almost 20 minutes left to play.

But, with Ervins watching from the sideline, Royster broke free for a 50-yard run on his first carry, leading to a one-yard touchdown run by Marinovich that again put USC in command, 35-18, with 14:12 left.

“I’ve never felt we had a terrible running game,” Smith said. “It was just a matter of getting it untracked. It comes down to blocking and we got control of the line of scrimmage.”

Paying for it were the Buckeyes and their new field.

Trojan Notes

USC is 3-1; Ohio State is 2-1. . . . The crowd of 89,422 represented Ohio State’s 47th consecutive sellout in Ohio Stadium. . . . Ricky Ervins’ 199 rushing yards were the most by a USC back since 1986, when Ryan Knight ran for 204 in a 28-3 victory over California. . . . Said Ervins, who ran for only five yards in nine carries last week against Washington: “The first (few) games, I was trying to pick my holes, thinking about the long runs. But this game, I talked to several people, and they said just run the ball hard and make people pay for it.” . . . In its first three games, USC ran for 248 yards, including only 28 last week in a 31-0 loss at Washington. . . . Ohio State ran for only 79 yards after running for 384 in its first two games.