TUCSON--Arizona trailed No. 3-ranked Southern California by seven points moments into the fourth quarter, then couldn't put together another scoring drive while USC tacked on 10 more points for a 20-3 victory before the fourth-largest crowd in Arizona Stadium history.
A crowd of 58,801 watched as Nick Folk's 43-yard kick put Arizona within reach of the Pac-10's premier squad. Arizona's offense struggled all night, but so did the Trojans, held to their lowest point total in their past 52 games. USC last scored 20 or fewer points in a 27-20 loss to Kansas State on Sept. 21, 2002.
The Trojans' strength of old -- the running game -- came through with 202 yards, paced by freshman Emmanuel Moody's career-best 130 yard effort on 21 carries -- 6.2 yards per tote. That gave the Trojans enough room to throw when it had to, amass 22 first downs to Arizona's eight, and post 381 total yards. The yards were there, but UA's defense held strong when it came to the end zone for most of the night.
UA quarterback Willie Tuitama and USC's John David Booty had similar evenings -- tossing for 170 and 179 yards, respectively, but Booty hit All-American Dwayne Jarrett for a scoring pass in the third quarter to give USC a 10-0 lead, and spread around 24 completions (39 attempts) among 11 different receivers to keep UA off balance.
Tuitama completed 14 of 23 passes and suffered an interception as did Booty. Arizona's critical turnover, however, came in the final minutes when backup punt returner Mike Thomas mishandled a fair catch and lost a fumble inside the UA 10 yard-line to set Southern California up for its last score on a nine-yard field.
Arizona could not muster a rushing game, finishing in negative yardage for the first time since a 2002 game at California (Nov. 16) where it garnered a -5 total on 32 tries. The Cats had -16 total yards on the ground against the Trojans in 19 attempts, thanks mostly to five sacks by five different Trojans.
USC's heralded defense didn't disappoint. Arizona ran a total of 44 plays, gaining an average of 3.5 yards. Meantime, USC ran almost twice as many, 81. USC's unit kept Arizona out of the red zone for the entire game.
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