LOS ANGELES — It’s dead.
And the Washington Huskies have life.
The UW football team ended a 13-game road losing streak in dramatic fashion Saturday night, beating 18th-ranked USC 32-31 with Erik Folk’s last-second field goal from 32 yards out. It marked the second year in a row that Folk has beaten the Trojans with a game-winning field goal, the second year in a row that the Huskies have upset a ranked USC team and the first time UW has won a road game since Nov. 3, 2007.
“It proves to the guys that, yeah, we can win on the road, and we can beat a good football team,” Huskies middle linebacker Cort Dennison said. “It’s a great start (to the Pac-10 schedule). We aren’t happy with where we are — there are things we definitely need to work on — but we’re happy with the win.”
The victory breathed new life into a season that was on the brink of disaster for the Huskies, who are now 2-2 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-10 Conference. The last-second field goal kicked off a celebration that didn’t have quite the attendance of last year’s upset — this was, after all, a road game — but had just as much excitement among the players.
“To have the team compete like that for four quarters and win like we did at the end, it’s awesome,” said quarterback Jake Locker, who completed 24 of 40 passes for 310 yards and a touchdown while adding 110 rushing yards. “I’m just really proud of these guys.”
While Saturday’s game included some good fortune in the final minutes — a misfired third-down pass to an open receiver forced the Trojans to attempt a field goal on their final drive, and USC kicker Joe Houston hit the right upright with 2:34 remaining — it was another legendary drive that put the Huskies on top in the end.
For the second year in a row, Locker engineering the game-winning drive — this time with a key fourth-down completion and a scramble to convert a third down and put UW in field-goal range.
After USC’s Houston missed his 40-yard field goal on one end of the field, Locker engineered a 10-play, 61-yard drive by completing 2 of 4 passes — the most important of which was an 18-yard throw to D’Andre Goodwin on fourth-and-11. Running back Chris Polk broke runs of 26 and six yards to push the Huskies across midfield, and then Locker took off for an eight-yard scramble on third-and-5 to get a first down at the USC 20 with 32 seconds remaining.
From there, the Huskies essentially played the clock game before taking their final timeout with three seconds left.
After USC coach Lane Kiffin twice tried to ice Folk with timeouts, the junior kicker nailed a 32-yarder to beat the Trojans for the second year in a row.
“I was just thinking about making it. I wasn’t thinking about the situation or what happened last year,” said Folk, who hit a 22-yard field goal with three seconds left to give UW a 16-13 win over third-ranked USC last September. “My whole mentality is just to go out there and make the next kick. It doesn’t really matter what happened in the past.”
The familiarity to last year’s finish wasn’t lost on many people.
“It’s like deja vu,” junior receiver Jermaine Kearse said. “We were backed up, just like we were last year, and drove the ball down the field. It was very similar.”
The two teams engaged in a back-and-forth shootout through 30 minutes of play, combining for 624 yards of total offense before USC went into halftime with a 21-20 lead.
The biggest play of the first half came midway through the second quarter, when the Huskies appeared to be on their way to a 24-14 after scoring a third touchdown in a six-minute span. But after Locker broke free down the left sideline on a 50-yard run, USC cornerback Shareece Wright caught him from behind and punched the ball out at the 5-yard line. The ball flew over the orange pylon and out of the end zone, resulting in a turnover and USC touchback.
Eleven plays and 80 yards later, the Trojans capped off their most impressive drive of the day with a Marc Tyler touchdown run to go ahead 21-17 with 2:35 remaining. UW cut the deficit to one with a field goal two minutes later.
The Huskies piled up 319 yards of offense and 15 first downs in the first half and didn’t have to punt the ball a single time, yet still trailed by a point.
The back-and-forth theatrics continued through the second half, including a goal-line play that the Huskies had to run after Locker went to the sideline after getting the wind knocked out of him. Backup Keith Price, seeing the first significant snap of his UW career, stepped in and fired a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Chris Izbicki to give the Huskies a 29-28 lead with 13:52 remaining.
Houston hit a 27-yard field goal about four minutes later to put USC ahead 31-29, and then the Huskies took their stroke of good luck and ran with it when the Trojans’ kicker missed the 40-yarder.
UW’s final drive started with an incomplete pass, a near fumble after a USC defender hit Locker’s arm _ only to have it end up in the hands of Huskies offensive lineman Cody Habben for a completion of minus-1 yards — and another incomplete pass on third-and-11.
Then Locker hit Goodwin for the fourth-down completion, and the drive of the ages was off and running.
“We were just having fun,” Goodwin said. “The coaches prepare us for that situation all the time, so we’re ready for it. We do it all the time, so it’s just routine.”
The two teams combine for 1,020 yards of total offense, including a season-high 536 from the Huskies. UW had to overcome 298 rushing yards from the Trojans and 223 from Allen Bradford.
But in the end, the Huskies’ offense had enough in the tank to get the final points when it mattered most.
“I told the guys before the game,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said late. “Let’s lead off SportsCenter tonight.”
When it comes to games between the Huskies and USC as of late, that’s been a pretty safe prediction.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
