Trojans Put It Together Against Stanford, 45-20

Rob Johnson, Johnnie Morton and Deon Strother made most of the big offensive plays Saturday, enabling USC to end a two-year losing streak against Stanford and stay alive in the Pacific 10 Conference Rose Bowl race.

The Trojans routed Stanford, 45-20, before 59,376 at the Coliseum, winning their second in a row since losing at Notre Dame and moving to 6-4 overall, 5-1 in the Pac-10.

Only Washington and UCLA remain for the Rose Bowl-hopeful Trojans, who need to win both and have California or Arizona State upset Arizona this month.

“We’ve been bloodied and we’ve been knocked down about 8,000 times, but now we’re like Rocky in that big fight when he said, ‘I ain’t going down no more,’ ” USC Coach John Robinson said.

Robinson and his coaching staff seemed pleased with another prodigious offensive night. The Trojans have scored 87 points in their last two games.

And defensively, USC ended Stanford quarterback Steve Stenstrom’s streak of seven consecutive 300-yard games.

“He’s a great player, but we made him hustle, we made him work hard for what he got,” Robinson said. “We didn’t want him easily getting into a rhythm.”

USC continued its remarkable second-half defensive play. The Trojan defense kept Stanford (3-6, 1-5) out of the end zone in the second half. USC has now given up only one second-half touchdown in its last nine games.

In a 3-hour 27-minute game, Johnson and Stenstrom gave the crowd what it expected, plenty of passes. Johnson passed for 349 yards, Stenstrom 263. Stanford passed 51 times, USC 38.

Johnson easily bested his former El Toro High teammate, completing 22 of 35 passes, including another spectacular touchdown pass to Morton. This time, it was a 71-yard play that gave the Trojans a 24-10 lead in the second quarter.

Johnson threw to a variety of receivers. Against Cal last Saturday, 11 Trojans caught passes. Saturday, it was nine, with Morton, Strother and Ken Grace catching four each.

Even Johnson caught a pass--from wide receiver Ed Hervey on a reverse. It gained 15 yards.

Strother, a 205-pound senior fullback, had his best game. He broke three tackles on a 38-yard touchdown run that gave USC a 37-17 lead in the third quarter, scored another touchdown, caught four passes for 76 yards and had 58 yards rushing.

Morton had another record-setting night, gaining 127 yards in receptions and scoring two touchdowns.

Morton is now the all-time Pac-10 one-season receiving yardage leader with 1,233, the all-time USC one-season catch leader, with 71, and the all-time USC one-season touchdown-catch leader, with 12.

Johnson’s three touchdown passes gave him 22 for the season, breaking Rodney Peete’s old school record of 21, from 1987.

Johnson’s 22 completions gave him 231 for the season, breaking another Peete mark, 223, from 1988.

For USC, there was a downside. Safety Mike Salmon suffered an Achilles’ tendon injury in the second quarter, on a play when Stanford closed to 24-17.

With kicker Cole Ford sidelined because of a bad back, Salmon has been the kicker. If he can’t play this week, USC will be down to its No. 3 kicker, Martin Boskovich.

Salmon returned to the game after he was hurt, but said later: “It hurt, a lot. And it’ll hurt nine times worse tomorrow.”

Quipped Robinson: “Salmon hurt his leg. Fortunately, he’s quite slow anyway, so it won’t affect him much.”

Salmon made a great end-zone play in the first quarter, denying Stanford a touchdown with a leaping tip of a Stenstrom pass intended for Ellery Roberts. The Cardinal kicked a field goal, making it 14-3.

Salmon kicked a 26-yard field goal to give USC a 17-3 lead when it seemed Stanford was climbing back into the game, early in the second quarter.

Stenstrom took Stanford 63 yards in 10 plays in the middle of the second quarter to get Stanford to within a touchdown, 17-10, after David Shaw made a leaping end-zone catch on an 11-yard play.

Then Johnson and Morton caught Stanford in man-to-man deep coverage. Morton caught the pass in front of the Stanford bench, tiptoed the sideline for several strides and sailed into the end zone untouched with 4:59 left before halftime.

That made it 24-10, but again Stenstrom brought Stanford back. It became 24-17 when Mike Mitchell scored from the two, on the play when Salmon was hurt.

Strother made it 31-17 on USC’s first second-half series on a two-yard touchdown run, and then 37-17 on a brilliant 38-yarder.

Even then, Stanford still had a shot because the Trojans hadn’t yet really shut off Stenstrom. But at this point, they did.

Said Stanford Coach Bill Walsh: “We were outgunned. I knew we’d have to be lucky to come close, and we weren’t lucky. They have an excellent pass offense and they do a great job of protecting the quarterback.”