No. 14 USC football’s freshmen shine as Trojans blow by Louisiana

LOS ANGELES — No. 14 USC recovered from an uninspiring opening drive and used its freshman talent to take down Louisiana 49-30 in the Coliseum on Saturday night to close its nonconference slate unbeaten.

The Trojans’ freshmen combined for four touchdowns, and quarterback Jayden Maiava was 19-of-29 for 261 yards and five touchdowns. It’s Maiava’s third straight game of 250 or more passing yards.

King Miller led the USC rushing attack with 18 carries for 128 yards and one touchdown.

Quarterback Jayden Maiava threw two incomplete passes before recording his first interception of the season on the Trojans’ first drive of the game.

He scrambled out of a near-sack and ran left as running back Waymond Jordan held off a defender. He appeared to target receiver Tanook Hines but, instead, the ball landed firmly in cornerback Avery Demery’s hands.

The Ragin’ Cajuns (1-1) were able to get a 47-yard field goal out of it and deliver an early blow to a defense that had held both of its opponents scoreless in the first two games of this season.

USC (3-0) stuck to the ground when it got the ball back, allowing running backs King Miller, Shahn Alston, Riley Wormley and Waymond Jordan to all get touches. It was true freshman tight end Mark Bowman, however, who scored.

Maiava pinpointed Bowman in the middle of the field and sent a laser-straight pass through defenders to him for a 5-yard touchdown.

Bowman couldn’t be slowed. Maiava found him again for a 35-yard pass over the heads of the Louisiana defense, with the tight end hurdling a defender to complete the play.

The two closed out the drive by teaming up for a 9-yard touchdown. There was concerningly hard helmet-to-helmet contact between Bowman and safety Kody Jackson that left Bowman lying on his back, but he was able to run off the field on his own after brief medical attention.

The Ragin’ Cajuns’ Steven Blanco rushed up the middle for a 1-yard touchdown to cut USC’s lead to 14-10 with 9:21 left in the second quarter, but the Trojans quickly pulled away again. A throw by Maiava grazed the hands of safety Maurion Eleam and landed in freshman Kayden Dixon-Wyatt’s grip to make the score 21-10.

Trent Mosley, another freshman, added one more touchdown before the end of the first half on an 86-yard punt return. He bounced off two defenders and broke another tackle before sprinting down the left sideline and cleared into the end zone.

The Santa Margarita product tacked on his fifth touchdown of the season when he jumped for a deep pass from Maiava and brought it down in the end zone despite being wrapped up by a defender at the 9:48 mark of the third quarter.

“Lunch” Winfield scored on a quarterback keeper from a yard out for the final points of the third frame. Louisiana was given a fresh set of downs after a roughing the kicker penalty on Elbert “Rock” Hill IV, which allowed them to improve to 2-2 on red zone opportunities in the game.

Winfield scored once more on a 32-yard run early in the fourth quarter, but the game remained in hand thanks to Maiava’s 44-yard touchdown pass to Zacharyus Williams that had happened just prior.

Freshman quarterback Jonas Williams came in to finish the rest of the game. The Trojans added one more touchdown on a 12-yard King Miller run, and Louisiana’s Winfield threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Russell Babineaux.