College Football
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Southern California 48, Arizona State 17
When: 10:45 PM ET, Saturday, October 28, 2017
Where: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Arizona
Temperature: °
Head Official: Land Clark
Attendance: 53446

TEMPE, Ariz. -- A week after being dominated at Notre Dame, USC did the same sort of thing to Arizona State on Saturday night.

Ronald Jones II rushed for 216 yards and two touchdown and Sam Darnold passed for 266 yards and three scores in the No. 21 Trojans' 48-17 Pac-12 victory over Arizona State at Sun Devil Stadium.

"You never want that lingering mentality coming off a loss," USC coach Clay Helton said.

"These are very prideful individuals. Usually the better teams can clear it out. It's one step and clear, one play and clear. That's what these kids did. They came out here and had their jaws set and played some of their best football of the season."

Jones scored on 67- and 64-yard runs, the second for a 38-17 lead with 10:10 left in the third quarter. His career rushing high is 223 yards against Cal last season.

Wide receiver Tyler Vaughns had six receptions for 126 yards and two touchdowns and Deonta Burnett had four receptions for 49 yards and a score for USC (7-2, 5-1), which had 607 yards total offense, 341 yards rushing.

The Trojans and Arizona (6-2, 4-1), the only two one-loss teams in the Pac-12 South, meet in Los Angeles next Saturday.

"Maybe our best team effort all the way across the board," Helton said.

"When you are trying to win a championship, you have to have one of these victories where you come into a hostile environment and be able to stay in first."

Arizona State's Manny Wilkins completed 17 of 29 passes for 259 yards and a touchdown. He rushed for a score but was harassed much of the night and was sacked six times.

Kyle Williams had seven receptions for 121 yards and a touchdown.

USC defensive back Ykili Ross returned an interception 37 yards for a touchdown with 1:03 remaining.

The Sun Devils (4-4, 3-2) trailed 31-3 before scoring on the final play of the first half and on their first drive of the second half.

Arizona State had 357 yards total offense, 79 rushing. The Sun Devils, third in the FBS with 31 penalty yards per game, committed 10 penalties for 99 yards.

"We played very, very poorly," Arizona State coach Todd Graham said. "They whipped our butts.

"We had been playing better defense than that. It was all big-chunk plays."

In addition to Jones' long runs and a 39-yard keep by Darnold, Arizona State gave up pass plays of 47, 37 and 32 yards.

USC put its 49-14 loss to Notre Dame to bed early.

The Trojans had touchdown drives of 75, 75, 80 and 88 while rolling to a 31-10 halftime lead against an Arizona State defense that had given up only 17 points in its previous two games, both victories.

Darnold completed a 32-yard scoring pass to Burnett on USC's first drive before Brandon Ruiz's 39-yard field goal made it 7-3.

Darnold completed his first scoring pass to Vaughns, a 42-yarder for a 14-7 lead late in the first quarter.

Jones rushed for a 67-yard touchdown on the second play of the second quarter, and Darnold’s 19-yard connection with Vaughns made it 28-3 with 6:02 left in the quarter.

Chase McGrath's 51-yard field goal put USC up 31-3.

Arizona State scored on a Hail Mary pass on the final play of the half, a 47-yard completion to a diving Kyle Williams. The pass originally was ruled to have been caught in the field of play before being reversed after an official review.

NOTES: USC quarterback Sam Darnold is 15-3 as a starter, 10-0 at home. Darnold threw for 352 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a touchdown in a 41-20 victory against Arizona State last season, his first career home start. … Arizona State did not give up a touchdown until the fourth quarter of its last two games, a 13-7 victory over then-No. 5 Washington and a 30-10 victory at Utah. ... Sun Devils junior LB Christian Sam had 15 tackles and two sacks.
Top Game Performances
Rushing
Southern California   Arizona State
Ronald Jones Player Demario Richard
18 Attempts 15
216 Yards 70
12.0 Avg Yards 4.7
2 Touchdowns 0
0 Long 0
Receiving
Southern California   Arizona State
Tyler Vaughns Player Kyle Williams
6 Receptions 7
126 Yards 121
21.0 Avg Yards 17.3
2 Touchdowns 1
0 Long 0
Team Stats Summary
 
  Yards Scoring Defense
Team Tot Rus Pas TD FG INT Sck FF
Southern California 613 347 266 6 2 1 6.0 0
Arizona State 366 88 278 2 1 0 3.0 1