Walters Helps Fuel USC Past Oregon : Trojans: Freshman rushes for 67 yards in 24-13 victory. Johnson passes for 307 yards and Morton breaks school receiving record.

USC beat Oregon Saturday night, 24-13, and in the process might have finally discovered a tailback--Shawn Walters--who can consistently move the football.

While Rob Johnson was having another fine passing night, Walters, a 6-foot, 225-pound freshman, gained 67 yards in 13 carries.

“We’ve found a tailback in Shawn Walters,” Coach John Robinson said. “He did an excellent job. I’d say he established himself tonight.”

However, Robinson wouldn’t declare Walters his starter. Sophomore Scott Fields started Saturday, and former starter David Dotson also played.

The victory boosted the Trojans to 2-1 in the Pacific 10 and 3-3 overall. Oregon slipped to 3-2 and 0-2.

Both coaches agreed earlier this week that the USC-Oregon loser would pretty much be out of the Rose Bowl race.

“This was a great win for us,” Robinson said.

“It put us in the position of staying in the race and being able to have a one-week-at-a-time focus now, and not worry about anything else.”

Next up is Oregon State at the Coliseum on Saturday.

Before a capacity crowd of 40,935 at Autzen Stadium Saturday, Johnson completed a career-high 28 passes on 36 attempts for three touchdowns and 307 yards.

But Johnson’s wasn’t the only passing show of the night. Oregon quarterback Danny O’Neil threw for 297 yards.

The difference was Johnson beat Oregon with three big plays--two throws to Johnnie Morton and another to Ed Hervey. After that, the USC defense toughened and kept Oregon off the scoreboard in the second half.

Morton, who seems to make at least one acrobatic catch every game, had perhaps his best so far early in the fourth quarter.

On a third-and-10 play from Oregon’s 10, with the Trojans leading by 17-13, Johnson went to Morton, who was covered by two defenders. But Morton leaped high over both to catch it and score the final touchdown.

Oregon had taken a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter, but then Johnson passed to Morton uncovered at midfield for a 72-yard pass-run play.

Morton caught seven passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns. He now has 47 catches for the season and 160 for his career.

The 6-foot, 190-pound senior from Torrance is now USC’s all-time receiving yardage leader with 2,383, passing John Jackson.

“Johnnie Morton’s a great player, and I’ve been around some of the best,” Robinson said.

USC went ahead by 14-7 on a Johnson pass from Oregon’s 45 that caught Hervey on the one-yard line.

O’Neil brought Oregon back in the last two minutes of the half on a six-play, 75-yard drive ending with a Sean Burwell halfback-option pass from the USC five to wide receiver Cristin McLemore.

That made the score 14-13 at halftime after Oregon’s two-point conversion failed. USC’s Mike Salmon added a 33-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, with USC trying to run out the clock with its 11-point lead, Walters broke a key gain to Oregon’s 12, with seven minutes to go.

From the 26, he swept around the left side to give the Trojans a first down, but the drive stalled and Salmon missed a 24-yard field goal.

“I’m one of three tailbacks who could be the starter,” Walters said after the game, when asked if he thought he had nailed down the starting job.

“We have a good three-back system. Other teams don’t know what to expect. I haven’t felt like I was out of things--I play on the kickoff return team, so it’s not like I haven’t been in the games.”

In training camp summer, Robinson worked at making Walters a more aggressive runner.

“He keeps telling me to be a north-south runner, to use the power in my legs. I need to assert myself more,” Walters said.

Among the happiest about Walters’ showing was Johnson.

“Any time you’ve got a guy running the ball that well, the defense has to respect him,” he said.

“It opens up the passing game even more. It keeps defenses from using zones and just opens up the whole offense.”

Oregon Coach Rich Brooks said the game turned on a third-period fumble recovery by USC freshman Sammy Knight. USC had a 14-13 lead when Oregon fullback Dwayne Jones fumbled at the USC 30.

“We’d moved out of the short end of the field on that drive, it looked like we’d made a first down on the play--and then we fumbled it away. After that, we were swimming upstream.”