Trojans Put It All Together Against Bears : College football: Game plan works to perfection in 42-14 victory over Cal. Johnson is 32 of 39 for 369 yards.

USC converted 16 of 20 third down plays and got excellent performances from quarterback Rob Johnson and defensive back Jason Sehorn to rout California, 42-14, on Saturday before 55,000 at Memorial Stadium.

“It was a great win for us--it was the best football we’ve played all year,” Coach John Robinson said.

The Trojans, in improving to 5-4 overall and 4-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, have remaining games against Stanford, Washington and UCLA.

“Coach told us all we need now is a three-game win streak,” fullback Deon Strother said.

Robinson credited his junior quarterback, who was never more in command of a game than he was Saturday.

“Rob was outstanding,” Robinson said. “I’m not much for stats, but I’d sure like to see how many guys he threw to today.”

The answer is 11.

Johnnie Morton had seven catches for 118 yards, his 10th touchdown of the season and another sensational catch for his already long highlight film.

Senior tight end Brad Banta had his best day for USC with four receptions and a touchdown.

On a day when California lost its third in a row and slipped to 5-3, 2-3, these were USC’s biggest plays:

--The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Banta made a juggling catch over the middle on the game’s first drive. The 26-yard play--on third-and-10--gave the Trojans’ a first down at the Bears’ 25. Shortly afterward, Johnson hit Morton for a touchdown.

--USC defensive back Jason Oliver, on Cal’s first offensive play, intercepted a pass from Dave Barr to set up USC on its second scoring drive, one that resulted in a 12-0 Trojan lead.

--Morton made a leaping catch to gain 36 yards--the game’s longest play--on USC’s third scoring drive, setting up the Trojans at Cal’s 13. Three plays later, Banta got his touchdown for 20-7.

--Sehorn made a brilliant play early in the third quarter, leaping to break up a possible touchdown from Barr to Damien Semien. Then, on Cal’s next series, Sehorn made a falling-down end zone interception of a Barr pass. The ensuing Trojan drive resulted in a score and a 35-14 lead.

Employing USC’s high-percentage short pass offense to near-perfection, Johnson completed 32 of 39 passes for 369 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions. For USC, only Todd Marinovich completed more passes in a game--33 against Notre Dame in 1989.

“Johnson is a very accurate thrower and he has great receivers,” Cal Coach Keith Gilbertson said. “Morton is a great player. We doubled and tripled him, did everything known to man, but he got open and caught it.”

Cal’s offense, Gilbertson said, couldn’t stop Johnson.

“The football game was decided because we could not get (USC) out of a drive defensively,” he said. “If you let someone (convert third downs), you’re just going to have that kind of afternoon.”

A long one, Gilbertson means. The Trojans had the ball for 38 minutes 41 seconds compared to Cal’s 21:19.

USC was also aided by one of its best rushing attacks of the season, gaining 122 yards.

That, USC offensive coordinator Mike Riley said, may have been just enough for Gilbertson to call off his blitzing defense.

Backup Trojan fullback Rory Brown burst up the middle for 19 yards and the game’s last touchdown.

“We worked hard all week at picking up their stunts and blitzes, yet they didn’t blitz as much as we expected,” Brown said. “But really, with Rob getting the ball off so quickly, why do it?

“I thought a key was Brad Banta making that big catch on the first drive, which enabled us to jump right on top. After that, Rob had his best day yet at reading through the passing routes, finding open guys.”

Said offensive lineman Joel Crisman: “Everything the coaches showed us on film about what Cal does, Cal showed us in the game. We just had a great game plan.”

Johnson said USC set the tone from the beginning.

“We got that quick start, and then we were able to run the ball effectively,” he said. “They double- and triple-teamed Morton, but other guys were open and that gave them fits.”

Defensively, USC’s game was likened to the 24-13 victory at Oregon three weeks ago.

“We’ve played good second halves defensively all year--even at Notre Dame we played well in the second half,” defensive coordinator Don Lindsey said.

“But today we got it done in both halves. This was as good as our defense at Oregon, which I thought was our best until today. But the offense--they did an awesome job today.”

Robinson hinted that USC’s offense might be even stronger next Saturday against Stanford with the possible return of All-American offensive tackle Tony Boselli, who has missed four games because of a kneecap dislocation.

“We might have Boselli for a partial game next week,” Robinson said.

Morton padded his record-breaking senior season. He now has a school-record 1,106 yards this season, passing a mark of 1,015 set in 1990 by Gary Wellman. Morton also became the all-time Pac-10 career reception leader for wide receivers, with 180.

“They double-teamed me about half the time,” Morton said. “Coach Riley made great third-down calls all day--every time we got in a (third-down) hole, we had the right play to get out of it.”