No. 5 Oregon Routs California Like Never Before

Oregon’s offense did what was expected. The defense was even better than Coach Mike Bellotti hoped.

Joey Harrington passed for two touchdowns and ran for another as No. 5 Oregon got off to its best start since 1964, rolling past California, 48-7, on Saturday at Berkeley.

The Ducks (6-0, 3-0 Pac-10) got little challenge from the Golden Bears (0-5, 0-3), off to the worst start in school history. The game was a blowout by halftime, and Oregon’s reserves got nearly as much playing time as the starters.

Oregon led, 42-0, in the third quarter of its sixth consecutive victory over Cal--and the biggest blowout in the history of a rivalry that dates to 1899.

The Ducks’ offense had another impressive afternoon, but the defense made the Golden Bears look as dismal as their record, intercepting three passes and holding Cal to 322 yards--most of them after the game essentially was decided.

“I was very pleased with our defense,” Bellotti said. “We continued to take the ball away. We came out strong on both sides of the ball. We dominated the line of scrimmage. We made a significant improvement today.”

Maurice Morris ran for 81 yards and two touchdowns. Onterrio Smith and Keenan Howry each rushed for a touchdown as Oregon scored 21 points in the first 12 minutes.

Harrington was 13 of 20 for 181 yards despite sitting out the fourth quarter. While they weren’t close to the eye-popping numbers he put up last week against Arizona (279 yards passing, three touchdown passes, three touchdown rushes), they were more than enough to beat Cal.

Oregon State 38, Arizona 3--Ken Simonton rushed for 104 yards to end his slump, and the Beavers’ defense regained some of last year’s punch to rout the Wildcats at Corvallis, Ore.

Simonton, held to 45 yards rushing in losses to UCLA and Washington State, had a one-yard touchdown run to become the conference’s career scoring leader among nonkickers and keep the Beavers (2-3, 1-2) in contention for an unprecedented third consecutive bowl appearance.

For the third consecutive game, Arizona (3-3, 0-3) gave first-year Coach John Mackovic a feeble performance. The offense managed just 159 yards, 46 rushing.

The defense gave up 415 yards.