Morton Sets a Record in USC Victory : College football: He has six catches for 120 yards for a career total of 2,523, a Pac-10 mark. Beavers fall, 34-9.

Johnnie Morton set a Pacific 10 Conference career receiving record and caught three touchdown passes from Rob Johnson to lead USC to a 34-9 victory over Oregon State Saturday at the Coliseum.

The Beavers (3-4 overall, 1-3 in the Pac-10) did not complete a pass in the game, with freshman Rahim Muhammad starting because of injuries to the first- and second-string quarterbacks. Muhammad was 0 for 5 as Oregon State lost to USC (4-3, 3-1) for the 20th consecutive time dating back 26 years.

The heavily favored Trojans led, 13-6, at halftime and pulled away on a pair of Johnson-to-Morton touchdown passes in the third quarter.

Morton, a senior, made six catches for 120 yards and has 2,523 career receiving yards. That topped the previous conference record of 2,517 yards by Stanford’s Ken Margerum in 1977-80.

The Trojans broke a 6-6 tie when Morton took a short pass from Johnson and scored on a 23-yard play 5:15 into the second quarter.

Johnson, who was 12 of 19 for 196 yards, threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Morton on the second play of the third quarter to stretch the lead to 20-6. Five minutes later, Johnson threw a 37-yarder to Morton for another score.

Oregon State, which last beat USC in 1967 at Corvallis, a 3-0 victory in which the Beavers held the Trojans’ O.J. Simpson in check, was an entirely one-dimensional team in Saturday’s game.

Oregon State’s inability to pass allowed the Trojans to focus on stopping the Beavers’ wishbone offense.

The Beavers, able to move the ball with some consistency early in the game, tied the score, 6-6, on a five-yard run by Sedrick Thomas early in the second quarter. Tim Kollas missed the extra-point attempt, however, hitting the bottom of the crossbar. Oregon State’s other scoring was a 32-yard field goal by Brooke Knight early in the fourth quarter.

The Trojans, after scoring on one-yard dive by Deon Strother on their first possession, also failed to convert the extra-point attemp, as Matt Dickerhoof broke through to block the kick by Mike Salmon.

USC’s final score came on a 13-yard pass from Kyle Wachholtz to DelVaughn Alexander late in the game.