Huskies shock No. 3 Trojans

SEATTLE – They descended as if carrying 10 years’ worth of frustration, and, in a way, they were.

Thousands upon thousands of jovial football fans, most of them pointing phone-cams toward the Husky Stadium scoreboard, rushed onto the playing surface and unleashed a fury of pent-up emotion late Saturday afternoon.

For those few moments following the University of Washington’s 16-13 win over USC, nobody seemed to really care that Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian had once worked for the Trojans, or that third-ranked USC had played the game without its starting quarterback and All-American safety Taylor Mays.

All that mattered – to steal a phrase from Prince – was that it was time to party like it was 1999, or thereabouts.

For a few hours, the UW football program had national significance again. Many of the 61,889 fans in attendance took the opportunity for the biggest on-field celebration Husky Stadium has seen since before any of the current players were born.

“It’s an unbelievable moment to have the crowd on the field,” said sophomore receiver Jermaine Kearse, who caught a 19-yard pass with 22 seconds left to set up Erik Folk’s winning field goal. “I was really hoping that was going to happen. It was a dream come true.

“I got punched a couple times in the stomach, got hit on the shoulder pads a lot. It was a more brutal beating I got in that crowd than it was during the game.”

For most of the afternoon, the third-ranked Trojans (2-1) certainly lacked punch. UW’s coaching staff, led by Sarkisian and defensive coordinator Nick Holt – another former USC assistant – used their years of experience under Pete Carroll to help keep the seven-time defending Pac-10 champions within striking distance.

USC certainly looked the part early in the game, marching down the field on its first two drives for an early 10-0 lead.

UW’s offense did just enough to put some points on the board, particularly on a 10-play, 61-yard drive to set up Folk’s winning field goal, but it was the defense that did the most damage. The Huskies held USC without a single third-down conversion and forced three turnovers in Washington territory. Donald Butler and Mason Foster forced fumbles, while Butler added an interception to thwart USC scoring drives.

USC’s Jordan Congdon hit a 23-yard field goal with 4:07 remaining to tie the score at 13.

Washington took over 6 seconds later at its 33-yard line, and quarterback Jake Locker led the most impressive drive of his UW career thus far.

After getting sacked for a 12-yard loss on first down, Locker hit running back Chris Polk for 9 yards and converted a third-and-13 with a 19-yard pass to Kearse. Five plays later, on second-and-6, Locker hit Kearse again after scrambling to the right and floating a ball over the USC defender.

The Huskies ran one more play and let the clock run down to 7 seconds before Folk came on to kick the winner.

WASHINGTON 16, (3) USC 13

 USC – McKnight 7 run (Congdon kick)

USC – FG Congdon 42

Wash – Locker 4 run (Folk kick)

Wash – FG Folk 28

Wash – FG Folk 46

USC – FG Congdon 25

Wash – FG Folk 22

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – USC, McKnight 11-100, S.Johnson 10-64, Havili 6-59, Bradford 4-18, Corp 2-9. Washington, C.Polk 25-71, Locker 8-(minus 15).

PASSING – USC, Corp 13-22-1-110. Washington, Locker 21-35-0-237.

RECEIVING – USC, Havili 4-36, Williams 3-40, McKnight 3-6, Butler 1-11, McCoy 1-11, Ausberry 1-6. Washington, J.Johnson 7-72, Kearse 3-70, C.Polk 3-22, Aguilar 2-17, Middleton 2-16, Fogerson 1-18, Homer 1-12, Goodwin 1-11, Ossai 1-(minus 1).