Suspensions Are No Hitch for Trojans : USC: Keyshawn Johnson shows off his explosiveness in 31-0 victory over Arizona State. Washington, Woods fill tailback gap.

No one, the coaches said, is supposed to be able to score a long touchdown on a quick-hitch pass play.

No one told Keyshawn Johnson.

He did just that for the second game in a row Saturday, this time a 60-yarder, highlighting a 31-0 USC drubbing of Arizona State at the Coliseum.

John Robinson’s fifth-ranked team, hiking its record to 4-0, played without three suspended starters--tailback Shawn Walters, linebacker Errick Herrin and defensive end Israel Ifeanyi.

But USC still has Johnson. For the fourth game in a row, he was the most explosive athlete on the field.

On a night when USC’s nation’s-best scoring defense bagged a shutout, Johnson had 13 catches for 171 yards, his 12th consecutive 100-yard receiving game.

Another major player was tailback Delon Washington. The sophomore from Dallas had by far his busiest and most productive night as a Trojan, weaving through Arizona State’s defensive line 25 times for 120 yards.

Walters’ suspension also opened up playing time for 5-foot-7, 190-pound LaVale Woods, who has been waiting three years for his chance. So far down the depth chart a week ago as to be invisible, Woods got seven carries and had 62 yards and two touchdowns.

His squirming, darting running style reminds USC coaches of the Rams’ Dick Bass.

Robinson was almost as delighted with the shutout as he was with Johnson’s 60-yard touchdown play, after which his grin was nearly as wide as Johnson’s.

“Defensively, it was outstanding,” he said. “The defense allowed us to come out in the second half and take over the game.”

The suspensions? He tried to describe a team that had been distracted since the stunning Thursday announcement.

“I think our team was thinking about that,” he said. “They all feel for their teammates, but this is a team. This is another example that this is a team that is developing some solid team values and beliefs in each other.”

Herrin and Ifeanyi watched the game from the sidelines in street clothes; USC players said Walters didn’t attend the game.

“We’re getting better,” Robinson said. “We’re getting stronger. We didn’t have any turnovers, which is most impressive to me.”

Brad Otton and Kyle Wachholtz have yet to throw an interception this year. And Otton hasn’t thrown one in his USC career. He extended his Pacific 10 record for attempts without a pick to 176.

Johnson’s second-most productive night this season (he had 177 yards against Houston) bumped him up to No. 8 on USC’s career list with 104 catches in only 15 games. Ten of his 13 catches Saturday were for first downs.

Last Tuesday, Johnson was in USC’s sports information office, filling up reporters’ notebooks.

“I know what [cornerback] Traivon Johnson is doing at ASU this week,” he said. “He’s walking around telling people he can cover me when he knows he can’t cover me!”

Arizona State (2-3) was a troublesome foe for a little over a half. Before 52,577, USC got a 10-0 lead 18 seconds before halftime, took a 16-0 edge early in the third quarter . . . all setting the stage for Johnson’s spectacular play.

The 6-4 wide receiver ran a quick hitch to the left side, turning and squaring his shoulders to his quarterback, Otton. It’s a play designed simply to produce a first down. It was a second-and-three play, run against Traivon Johnson.

Johnson, a junior college teammate of Keyshawn Johnson’s, played too deep, then bit on a great upper body fake to the inside. Keyshawn pivoted around Johnson and looked like an Olympic 200-meter runner, sailing off to the end zone.

“Nobody is supposed to be able to score a touchdown on a quick hitch, and he’s done it twice in a row,” said receiver coach Mike Sanford, referring to a 28-yard play Johnson made in Tucson last week.

After the game Saturday, at his locker, Johnson surveyed his world and found himself all but alone on his talent ratings.

“How many guys do you know who can score on a quick hitch?” he asked.

“Jerry Rice? OK. Anybody else? Not too many, right?”

With that touchdown, USC had reached 410 total net yards against Arizona State, and there was still a quarter to go. The Trojans, who play at Cal next Saturday, finished with 517.

The quarterback rotation was again pretty much a split. Starter Otton was 15 for 26 for 192 yards and two touchdowns, and Wachholtz was 11 for 14 for 113 yards.

And both afterward finally seemed sold on Robinson’s scheme. Both had expressed reservations about a two-quarterback offense in preseason camp.

“It’s working, it’s cool,” Wachholtz said. “Teams have to prepare to play two quarterbacks and I think it’s a problem for them.”

Otton, the starter, took some big hits in the first quarter while USC’s offensive line needed time to figure out some unexpected blitzes and lineups.

“They confused us at first with some stuff we didn’t expect, but our O-line wore them down, later in the game,” Otton said.

The Sun Devils, USC offensive linemen said afterward, weren’t nice guys.

“I drove one guy seven yards downfield, dumped him on his back and he tried to rise up and kick me,” center Jeremy Hogue said.

Said tackle John Michels: “They were punching us in the pileups. . . . I got kicked in the groin.”

It was a night when the subject of the suspensions wouldn’t go away. The press box announcer was compelled to say that Traveler, the Trojan horse, wasn’t on the suspended list when he didn’t come out of the tunnel for a victory lap after USC’s first touchdown, with seconds left before halftime.

“Traveler is not being withheld from competition,” the announcement began. It was then explained too many halftime musicians were on the sideline to risk a gallop.

But no one could corral Keyshawn Johnson.