USC edges Washington State, 39-36
LOS ANGELES — J.T. Daniels passed for 241 yards and three touchdowns, and Jay Tufele blocked Washington State’s attempt at a tying field goal with 1:41 to play in Southern California’s 18th consecutive home victory, 3936 Friday.
Mililani High School graduate Vavae Malepeai rushed for his second touchdown with 8:03 to play for the Trojans (22, 1-1 Pac-12), who rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit to remain unbeaten at the Coliseum under coach Clay Helton.
After back-to-back road losses to Stanford and Texas put the Trojans in dire September straits, they responded with a strong second-half performance to hold off the Cougars (3-1, 0-1).
Gardner Minshew passed for 344 yards and three touchdowns in another strong performance for Washington State, while James Williams and Max Borghi rushed for scores.
But one year after the Trojans took their first loss of last season in a Friday night game in Pullman, the Trojans showed resilience and fourthquarter tenacity.
Washington State drove into field-goal range in the waning minutes, but the unblocked Tufele swatted down Blake Mazza’s 38-yard field-goal attempt.
Tyler Vaughns and Michael Pittman caught early TD passes from Daniels before the precocious freshman found his high school teammate, AmonRa St. Brown, for a beautiful 30-yard TD pass with 14:31 to play.
Easop Winston caught his second TD pass from Minshew with 10:15 to play, but the Trojans responded with a 56yard scoring drive capped by Malepeai’s TD run and Daniels’ pinpoint 2-point conversion pass to Vaughns with 8:03 left.