Cougs Only Half As Good Trojans Beat WSU 26-14; Poor Early Effort Irks Price

For the second time this season, Washington State proved that it can play with the best college football teams in the country - for one half, at least.

The Cougars, just like they did against second-ranked Nebraska three weeks ago, spotted No. 5 Southern California a cushy halftime lead Saturday afternoon and then left everything on the field in mounting another gutsy comeback that only made things interesting.

In the end, the outcome was much the same as it was in Lincoln. USC, an 11-point favorite, covered the spread with a 26-14 win that delighted most of those in a Memorial Coliseum crowd of 51,131 and kept the Trojans unbeaten through six games and atop the Pacific-10 Conference standings at 4-0.

“It was a good game for us,” USC coach John Robinson said after the Trojans pushed their winning streak over the Cougars to eight in a row and kept them winless in the Coliseum since 1957. “We really got off good.

“I liked the fact that the whole team played well today. We dominated the special teams area and that was probably the key area of the game.”

Robinson got no argument from WSU coach Mike Price, who labelled the play of his special teams - particularly his kick-coverage units - “very disappointing,” and vowed to make some personnel changes this week.

The Cougars cover teams gave up 164 yards, including a 63-yard punt return by Larry Parker that culminated in a second-quarter touchdown when Parker fumbled the ball into the end zone from the WSU 2-yard line and teammate Mike Bastianelli fell on it.

“I was very disappointed in that effort,” Price said after watching his Cougars slip to 2-1 in the Pac-10 and 3-3 overall.

Bastianelli’s score made it 10-0 early in the period and the Trojans went on to take a 19-0 halftime lead on an 8-yard pass from Kyle Wachholtz to Johnny McWilliams and a team safety that resulted from quarterback Chad Davis intentionally grounding a pass from his own end zone.

Davis was in a shotgun formation at his own 16 when center Marc McCloskey whisked a direct snap high and wide right. Davis chased the ball down and underhanded a no-look pass into the flat, which was vacant of any potential receivers.

It was one of only 27 first-half plays the Cougars ran as USC’s offense, directed by the quarterback tandem of Brad Otton and Wachholtz, demonstrated a remarkable knack for controlling the football.

The Trojans put together a 69-yard, 16-play drive that resulted in a 36-yard field goal by Adam Rendon on their first possession and went 96 yards on 18 plays for the 17-0 second-quarter TD that came on Wachholtz’s pass to McWilliams.

Otton answered his teammate’s touchdown pass with a 40-yard scoring toss to Tyler Cashman on USC’s first possession of the second half to put the Trojans ahead 26-0.

After being physically abused for the first 30 minutes, the Cougars defense stuffed the Trojans the rest of the way and came up with a couple of big turnovers - one of which resulted in a WSU score.

Junior linebacker Johnny Nansen had a hand in both turnovers, intercepting an Otton pass that led to Frank Madu’s 12-yard scoring run midway through the third quarter, and forcing a fumble with a big hit on Trojans tailback Delon Washington later in the period.

“At halftime, I thought I had to do something to fire our team up and I thought that interception was going to turn everything around,” said Nansen, who stepped in front of Cashman to stop Otton’s Pac-10-record string of pass attempts without an interception at 216.

“All week I’ve been watching films and that’s the same route they run every, every, every game. I knew he was going to do that, so I just stepped in front of him, caught the ball and tried to make it to the end zone, but I was a little tired.”

It was no wonder, considering WSU’s defense was on the field most of the first half and playing without leading tacker James Darling, who suffered a hip pointer on USC’s second play and played only one down after that.

Darling was one of at least six WSU players who required attention from head trainer Mark Smaha during the game.

“When we lost Darling, some of the calls on defense weren’t made,” admitted Nansen. “It was a great loss for us, but (Phillip) Glover stepped in a did a good job.

“Any time you lose your middle linebacker on the second play of game, you’re in trouble,” Price added.

Darling’s status was not immediately known, but Price seemed to think the other players who were helped off the field and later returned will be ready for next Saturday’s road matchup against defending Pac-10 champion Oregon.

Despite all of the physical abuse the Cougars took in the first half, they managed to hang around until midway through the final period, when a fourth-down incompletion near midfield ended a drive that could have pulled WSU within 26-21 had it ended with a touchdown.

WSU had pulled to within 26-14 on a 4-yard pass from Davis to Chad Carpenter with 11:27 left in the game. But when Mark Cusano stepped in front of tight end Eric Moore to bat down Davis’ fourth-down pass on the Cougars’ next ill-fated possession, it was over.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo