USC Laugher Turns Scary

Don’t answer the phone. Don’t channel-surf. Don’t think about putting dinner in the microwave.

USC is the team you dare not turn your back on.

If Chick Hearn were calling these games, maybe he’d ignore the refrigerator entirely.

A 30-point lead in the fourth quarter shrank to eight points before the Trojans walked away with a 37-29 victory over Oregon State in front of 43,795 Saturday at the Coliseum--and the game was up for grabs with 21 seconds left until quarterback Terrance Bryant’s fourth-down pass from the USC 31 fell incomplete.

A week after a late-game lead turned into a triple-overtime loss against Oregon, the Trojans allowed Oregon State to get close enough to dream of beating them for the first time since 1967.

“That was too close. We can’t let that happen again,” linebacker Sultan Abdul-Malik said.

Safety Ifeanyi Ohalete got a good look at exactly how close, covering the receiver when Bryant threw the final pass wide on a drive that began when USC’s Chad Morton lost a fumble at Oregon State’s 45 with 1:19 to play.

“We didn’t come through in the fourth quarter,” Ohalete said. “That’s our trademark, and instead we gave up 22 points in the fourth quarter.”

And yet they won, probably only because of a few spectacular plays that are as much reason as the late-game foolishness to keep a close eye on Trojans (3-1, 1-1).

Quarterback Mike Van Raaphorst was more than adequate as the replacement for Carson Palmer, who is out because of a broken collarbone, and Morton rushed for a career-high 153 yards and two touchdowns.

But linebacker Zeke Moreno was the surprise, scoring two touchdowns--the first when he caught a fumble in mid-air and ran it back 17 yards into the end zone after Ennis Davis jarred it loose from quarterback Jonathan Smith’s grasp on a sack.

The second came on a 71-yard interception return after he picked off a Smith pass.

“It was a long way,” Moreno said. “As soon as I jumped over the quarterback I thought somebody would get me from behind, and then I saw I was at the 40, the 30, and thought, ‘I’m almost there.’ ”

Long before Moreno’s big plays, there was R. Jay Soward’s dizzying 85-yard punt return for a touchdown in the first quarter.

“As fine a punt return as you’re ever going to see,” Coach Paul Hackett said.

Soward feinted right, darted left, then cut back to his right as he broke four tackles before leaving everybody behind around the 45.

He didn’t do much in the game after that, spending the second quarter inside getting an IV after being knocked out of the game by nausea and dehydration.

Though he returned, he didn’t have a reception in the game.

“To play that game without P. Jay Soward was extremely difficult,” Hackett said. “I think he’s OK. It was a stomach cramp. He was able to come back, and he was semi-effective later in the game.”

Soward, trying to keep an all-business approach, didn’t even celebrate in the end zone, and after the game was declining some interviews.

“I play a whole lot better when I don’t talk,” he said, though he later agreed to the briefest of descriptions of his punt return.

“It was typical R. Jay,” he said with a laugh.

The game was typical Trojan, for better and for worse.

There were 11 penalties this week--10 fewer than the school-record 21 against Oregon last week but still too many.

But most of all, there was that fourth-quarter fold, a near-collapse that left much of the team talking about the California game last season USC lost after blowing a 17-point lead.

Oregon State (3-1, 0-1) scored three touchdowns in the final 11:03--on a seven-yard pass from Bryant to Monjero Jones, a one-yard run by Ken Simonton, and a 53-yard pass from Bryant to Robert Prescott that was followed by a successful two-point conversion.

Simonton, who entered the game as the nation’s rushing leader, averaging 186 yards a game, was held to 127.

But USC didn’t hold Oregon State the way it needed to.

“Our team has to learn how to knock people out,” Van Raaphorst said. “When it’s 37-7, you can’t think about it, you just have to keep plugging away, and pretty soon it will be 55-7.”

Never mind that there were backups in the game late because of the score, and in the case of linebacker Markus Steele, a minor hip injury.

“You know what, regardless of that, guys that come in have a job, and they need to perform that job,” Van Raaphorst said. “You look at our team, first and second string, there’s not a lot of difference. Regardless of what personnel is in there, we’ve got a job to do, and we need to get it done in the fourth quarter.”

They got it done with a win, and that’s about it.

“This has been a very draining week, emotionally and physically,” Hackett said.

“This conference is anyone’s for the taking. We’ve got to go play against Arizona, and obviously we’ve got to play better.”

Considerably better, it would seem.

“I was having so many flashbacks of Cal,” safety David Gibson said. “Coach Hackett talked about a killer instinct. Once you’ve got a team on the ropes, you’ve got to knock them out. We did ease up.”