Wes Bender’s first USC touchdown came at...

Wes Bender’s first USC touchdown came at an opportune time.

The former Burroughs High, Burbank High and Glendale College player ran eight yards for a score with 2 minutes 55 seconds left to seal the Trojans’ 31-21 victory over then-undefeated and 13th-ranked Washington State on Saturday.

“It felt great,” said Bender, a senior. “I felt astonished to get the ball. I had only gotten it two times going into the game and didn’t expect to see it too much. At halftime, (fellow fullback Mike) Mooney said the holes were there and my coach (Wayne Nunnely) said, ‘We’re going to get you the ball in the third and fourth quarter.’ ”

Bender scored on a run to the left side.

“I turned it up, went over the left guard, saw the safety coming up, hit him and then went off to the left into the end zone,” Bender said. “It was a real confidence-booster for me and the team.”

Bender finished with 26 yards in five carries, and has 33 yards in seven carries for the season.

Reversal of fortune: Injuries limited Doug Kavulich’s opportunities to contribute to Rutgers’ football team during the past two seasons. But now, as a senior, the former Chaminade standout has avoided injuries and has started all seven of Rutgers’ games, dividing time among center, right guard and left guard.

“Our line schemes are set up so we’re all interchangeable parts,” Kavulich said. “It’s no big deal. You have to be alert mentally.”

After redshirting in 1988, he became a starter toward the end of the 1989 season. A hamstring injury in 1990 kept him from starting until the sixth game, a position he kept for the rest of the season. In 1991, an ankle injury sidelined him three weeks. He was a starter by the 10th game.

“I don’t know if I was written off by the line coach or what,” Kavulich said. “I decided in the off-season that it was my last year coming up, and that we had a new line coach and everyone started with a clean slate. I really worked hard on the off-season conditioning, lifting and spring football.”

Kavulich was rewarded for his efforts, earning the most-improved player award after spring practice.

“He is a very popular player,” line coach Mark Deal told Joe Zedalis of the Asbury Park Press. “Everyone on the team knows how hard Doug works and they know the results he gets.

“To me, he is overachieving now. Every place we’ve played him he’s played pretty well. He’s the one guy we could least afford to lose.”

Starting young: Ryan Fien isn’t the only true freshman from the region playing quarterback in college. Greg Peters, a Harvard-Westlake product, can also make that claim.

And although the levels aren’t comparable, Peters can claim greater success in his debut than his UCLA counterpart.

Whereas Fien, a former Royal High standout, suffered a hip injury against Arizona on Saturday as UCLA absorbed its first shutout in 21 years, Peters won freshman-of-the-week and rookie-of-the-week honors from two organizations after he rallied Tufts (Mass.) to a 10-10 tie with Williams in a Division III game. The tie sent a homecoming crowd of 6,200 home happy and denied Williams its 500th victory.

“I know I made of couple of crucial errors, but I was pleased with my performance and so were the coaches,” said Peters, who completed nine of 19 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown and had two interceptions.

After not playing in the Jumbos’ opener, Peters played in the team’s second game, then took the position over after Wayne Pandolph suffered a broken leg during the third quarter of a 14-0 loss to Trinity (Conn.) on Oct. 24.

“When I first came in here, I had to learn the system,” said Peters, the third-rated passer in the New England Small College Athletic Conference with a 129.31 efficiency rating. “I’ve learned to read defenses and am more comfortable calling audibles and understanding the offense and how it works.”

Statwatch: Three of the Pacific 10 Conference’s five leading rushers played their high school football in the region.

Cal’s Russell White (Crespi) is averaging 103.1 yards per game, putting him second behind Shaumbe Wright-Fair of Washington State. Sean Burwell of Oregon (Cleveland) is fourth at 79.8 and Ontiwaun Carter of Arizona (Kennedy) is fifth at 79.2.

Honors: Chad Zeigler (Canyon High, Pierce College) was named the Northern California Football Writers’ Assn. all-purpose player of the week after aggregating 133 yards on kickoff returns, 68 receiving, 28 on punt returns and 24 rushing to help San Francisco State post a 43-28 victory over Cal State Chico.