UW Gives Usc Its Fill Of Dillon

Washington wore down Southern Cal with a bruising runner and a smothering defense.

Corey Dillon rushed for 128 yards and two touchdowns on a school-record 37 carries, and No. 21 Washington held USC to minus14 yards rushing for a 21-10 victory Saturday.

Jerry Jensen had three of seven quarterback sacks for the Huskies (6-2, 5-1 Pac-10), who held the Trojans to their lowest rushing total ever. The previous USC low was minus-11 yards against Ohio State in 1941.

The loss was the third in five games for USC, which tied Washington 21-21 a year ago in Seattle and went on to share the Pac-10 title with the Huskies before beating Northwestern in the Rose Bowl.

Dillon scored on runs of 1 and 3 yards as the Huskies outscored the Trojans 18-0 in the second half after trailing at halftime.

“The important thing was that we stopped making mistakes like we made in the first half to give USC so many field-position opportunities,” said Washington coach Jim Lambright, who beat the Trojans for the first time in four tries as the Huskies’ head coach.

“We played with good field position most of the second half, and then the defense kept getting stronger and stronger. Some of the hits we got on the quarterback were awesome.”

The Huskies overcame a variety of botched plays, including having a punt, field goal and PAT kick blocked. They also failed twice on two-point conversion tries, lost a fumble and an interception.

But Dillon, a powerful 6-foot-2, 225-pounder, kept their offense chugging along. And Washington’s defense, which converted two turnovers into 10 second-quarter points, bowled over the Trojans’ line.

“This is as good as we’ve controlled the line of scrimmage as I can remember,” said Lambright, now 1-2-1 against USC.

Dillon, who has rushed for 1,035 yards this season, praised his offensive line.

“They gave me something to work with,” he said. “I just go out and do my job, run with the ball.”

Dillon took over the tailback job early this season after Rashaan Shehee was injured.

“He’s a good player and they have a good concept,” USC coach John Robinson said. “When they got the lead in the third quarter, that allowed them to hammer away. Our defense played well enough to come away with a win.”

The Trojans’ offense, however, was overwhelmed.

“We were hitting Otton left and right,” said linebacker Jason Chorak, who had one sack. “You could see on his face that he didn’t really want to be out there.”

Washington cut it to 10-9 on its first possession of the second half, with a drive kept alive by a fake punt. On fourth-and-5 at the USC 45, Cam Kissel lined up as a blocker, took a short snap and ran for 20 yards.

Brock Huard capped that 50-yard drive with a 17-yard TD pass to Jerome Pathon.

Dillon, getting a rare carry to the outside, took a pitch from Huard and scored on a 3-yard run to give Washington an 15-10 pad with 8:57 remaining.

That was plenty for the Huskies’ defense.

Huard completed 12 of 29 for 133 yards, with one interception. For the Trojans, Otton was 13 of 29 for 138 yards.

The former Washington record for carries in a game was Dillon’s 36 in a 27-6 win against Stanford on Oct. 5.

The Huskies missed a chance to tie the game early in the second half when safety Grant Pearsall blocked John Wales’ PAT attempt, following Huard’s touchdown pass.

After falling behind 3-0, the Trojans scored 10 straight points. Linebacker Sammy Knight picked off Huard’s pass at the Huskies’ 39 to set up USC’s first score, a 15-yard TD pass from Otton to fullback Rodney Sermons.

Moments later, safety Brian Kelly set up another USC score, stripping the ball away from flanker Dave Janoski, who had just caught a pass in the flat. Aaron Williams recovered for the Trojans at the Washington 12, Adam Abrams shortly later kicked a 27-yard field goal for a 10-3 lead.

Washington 21, USC 10

Washington 3 0 12 6 - 21

USC 0 10 0 0 - 10

Wash-FG Wales 25 USCSermons 15 pass from Otton (Abrams kick) USCFG Abrams 27 Wash-Pathon 17 pass from Huard (kick blocked) Wash-Dillon 1 run (pass failed) Wash-Dillon 3 run (pass failed) A-60,039.

Wash USC First downs 16 11 Rushes-yards 48-161 30-(-14) Passing 133 138 Comp-Att-Int 12-29-1 13-29-0 Return Yards 71 9 Punts-Avg. 6-32.0 10-40.5 Fumbles-Lost 4-1 4-1 Penalties-Yards 10-69 7-41 Time of Possession 35:41 24:19 Individual statistics RUSHINGWashington, Dillon 37-128, Kissel 1-20, Reed 5-6, J.Harris 2-6, Huard 2-1, Keiaho 1-0. USC, Washington 12-19, Walters 5-11, Sermons 2-2, Woods 1-0, Koffler 1-(minus-7), Otton 9-(minus39).

PASSINGWashington, Huard 12-29-1-133. USC, Otton 13-29-0-138.

RECEIVINGWashington, Cleeland 4-52, Janoski 3-13, Pathon 2-39, Coleman 2-16, Brigham 1-13. USC, Sermons 5-55, Washington 3-7, Bastianelli 2-41, Parker 2-17, Walters 1-18.