
Los Angeles, Ca – It wasn’t pretty today on the field but the USC Trojans defeated Western Michigan University Broncos in a hard fought game 49 – 31 at the Coliseum.
The Broncos gave the Trojans almost all that they could handle in this home opener.
This 2017 season kicks off USC 125th season in school history. The school will use the hashtag #Team125 to celebrate this year happenings on social media.
USC mounted a comeback at end third quarter with 10 play 83 yard drive that looked to wear down the Broncos defense some. The drive was capped off with a 11 yard touchdown by USC Darnold on a keeper.
Both teams took turns matching each other on the scoreboard with some great football being played on the field.
USC defense came up with a big stop on 3rd & 19 from 30 yard line forcing them to settle for 43 yard field goal to trail by 35-31 4:31 left in the game. The Trojans from this point on finished off the Broncos and kept they poise to get the victory.
“We celebrate all wins,” said USC coach Clay Helton “I’m thankful for #25 (Ronald Jones III) today.”
The Trojans leaned on the strength while trying to stick to balance game plan of passing and rushing the ball on offense. They began to find its rhythm once it found mismatches with the Broncos defenders.
Running back Ronald Jones out of the backfield was one of the mismatches that paid off gaining chunks of yards finishing the game with 18 carries for 159 yards 3 touchdowns. Jones scored the tying touchdown in second quarter with 4:21 on clock of 14-14 game.
The opening drive the Trojans gained 75 yards in 6 plays with a 16 yard touchdown run by Jones.
On the second series Sam Darnold was sacked and the Trojans were forced to punt. This gave Broncos good field position which they capitalized on tying the score 7-7 in 1st quarter of play.
After the Broncos settled down they began to control the tempo and the game. They took a second quarter lead on quarterback keeper seven yards score to lead 14-10 over 14 minutes in the half.
The Broncos did have one more highlight on special team which was 100 kickoff return by Darius Phillips in 4th quarter 28-28.
Now Helton knows his freshman running back Stephen Carr can come in and spell Jones and they will not lose a beat. Carr in his debut rushed 7 carries 69 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The Trojans now will have some film on what areas need to be cleaned up to be ready for next week battle with Stanford at 5:30pm.