Trojans roll past turnover-plagued California
SAN FRANCISCO – Matt Barkley threw two touchdown passes and Southern California took advantage of five turnovers from California to win its eighth straight game in this football series, 30-9 on Thursday night at AT&T Park.
Marqise Lee and Brandon Carswell caught TD passes, but the defense bailed out USC (5-1, 3-1 Pac-12) on a night its offense struggled to click.
Making matters even worse, the Trojans lost Lee to an apparent right arm injury in the first half and leading rusher Marc Tyler to a shoulder injury in the third quarter.
After allowing 84 points and 946 yards the previous two games, the Trojans kept Cal off the scoreboard until late in the third quarter and doubled their turnovers caused this season with three interceptions and two fumble recoveries.
Zach Maynard committed four of Cal’s five turnovers – surpassing the team’s season total coming into the game – and the Golden Bears (3-3, 0-3) dropped their sixth straight conference game since late last season. Cal is off to its worst conference start under coach Jeff Tedford.
Maynard threw for 294 yards and ran for a touchdown and his half-brother, Keenan Allen, had a career-high 13 catches for 160 yards, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the mistakes.
The series has been one-sided since Cal upset USC 34-31 in triple overtime back in 2003.
| Stanford | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Oregon | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Washington | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Washington St. | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Oregon St. | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| California | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Arizona St. | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Southern Cal | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| UCLA | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Colorado | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Utah | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Arizona | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |