Huskies feast on No. 1 USC's mistakes, but fall short, 27-24

It figured to be a strange day on Montlake if the Huskies could somehow knock off the No. 1 team in the nation.

And for much of the game, strange was the only way to describe it as the Huskies somehow kept hanging around with USC despite being dominated statistically.

Finally, the Huskies -- who knew they needed to play a virtually flawless game to win this one -- made late critical mistakes, which proved to be enough for the Trojans to emerge with a 27-24 victory in front of 68,654.

Anthony Russo fumbled a punt to give the Trojans the ball at the Husky 43 with 7:05 left allowing USC to hold on.

Later, Byron Davenport couldn't hold on to an interception in his own end zone that enable David Buehler to close out USC's scoring with a 33-yard field goal with 4:04 left.

The Huskies didn't let it go, however, and blocked a punt by Roy Lewis with just a little more than a minute left to get back into business. Jake Locker scored on a 1-yard run with 34 seconds left to make it 27-24, but then the Huskies couldn't recover the onside kick.

The Trojans took a 24-14 lead on a 2-yard run by Chauncey Washington with 4:53 left in the third quarter. That capped a 60-yard drive for USC that was sparked by a 32-yard pass from John David Booty to tight end Fred Davis.

USC also had driven down the field on its first drive of the third quarter, but after a penalty helped force the Trojans to attempt a field goal, Buehler missed a 33-yarder.

The Huskies then closed the gap on a bizarre 10-play, 22-yard drive that was capped by a 37-yard field goal by Ryan Perkins to make it 24-17 with 12:44 left.

The drive was set up when USC interfered with Russo as he tried to catch a punt. Two pass interference penalties on USC kept the drive alive long enough to get Perkins into field goal position.

The UW defense then rose to the occasion with Daniel Te'o-Nesheim getting a sack of Booty on USC's first play to force a three-and-out. UW got the ball back at its own 36 with 11:01 remaining.

But the Huskies couldn't move, with a pass to Louis Rankin on third-and-four netting just 3 yards, and UW decided to punt.

UW again held USC thanks in part to two more Trojan false start penalties, and Husky Stadium was rocking as it hasn't in years.

But Russo then fumbled a punt giving USC the ball at the Husky 43-yard-line.

The game came on a day when the school honored the 1960 Huskies, who went 10-1 and beat No. 1-ranked Minnesota in the Rose Bowl, as national champions. Former coach Jim Owens, who is 80, who had been hoping to attend was unable to make it.

The Huskies were dominated in the stats much of the night but stayed in the game thanks to a sloppy performance from the Trojans, who lost three turnovers in the first half and had 11 penalties for 110 yards in the first three quarters, three for personal fouls.

The game was a defensive struggle early on.

The Trojans seemed a little out of sorts, committing seven penalties for 60 yards in the first quarter alone and also losing a turnover, foreshadowing what was to come. The Trojans seemed unnerved by the Husky Stadium crowd at one point, committing false-start penalties on consecutive plays to derail a first-quarter drive. USC also had three personal foul penalties, one for a late hit on Locker.

The yo-yo act began early in the second quarter when Booty dropped a snap and UW's Erick Lobos recovered at the USC 14. The Huskies scored two plays later on a 10-yard run by Locker to take a 7-0 lead with 12:27 remaining.

But the Trojans never stayed down long and they rallied quickly, going 68 yards in six plays to tie the game, the final 23 coming on a pass from Booty to Patrick Turner with 10:16 left.

The Trojans then controlled the action for much of the rest of the quarter, moving 88 yards in eight plays the next time they had the ball with Staffon Johnson scoring on a 13-yard run. Johnson sparked the drive with a 45-yard dash up the middle then down the sideline in which the Huskies missed several tackles.

USC got the ball again and appeared ready to take command. But a third-down pass from Booty bounced off the shoulder pads of fullback Stanley Havili -- who had earlier dropped a possible touchdown -- and Mesphin Forrester picked it out of the air and scampered 54 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 14 with 2:03 left.

USC, however, again came right back with Washington breaking free for a 53-yard run on the Trojans' first play of its next drive. UW, however, held the Trojans out of the end zone forcing a 22-yard FG by Buehler.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com.