The Arizona football team took on USC this Saturday, Oct. 29, in Tucson.
The first half had an abundance of offense as both teams scored on just about every drive. However, the score stayed low at 17-13, with USC in the lead due to multiple field goals. The Arizona offense was holding its own, but the defense could not seem to stop the Trojans from scoring. USC responded to Wildcat scores with big plays that would take away the momentum from the defense while putting pressure on the offense.
Kicker, Tyler Loop, was successful on two field goal attempts after the Arizona offense scored an early touchdown from quarterback Jayden de Laura to Dorian Singer.
To start the second half, Arizona drove down the field but settled for another Loop field goal to make the score 17-16 USC. The Trojans once again responded right away with a 70-yard pass from Caleb Williams to Kyle Ford. This would lead to a USC touchdown from Tahj Washington to make the score 24-16 USC.
The following Wildcats’ drive wouldn’t amount to much as they got to midfield and turned the ball over on downs. Once again, the Trojans would respond with a huge run play to put them in Arizona territory. The Arizona defense got their first stop of the game on this possession, forcing a turnover on downs.
De Laura got the ball at the Arizona 20-yard-line and was able to move the ball to the USC 40-yard line before throwing an interception to Bryson Shaw. This would lead to another USC touchdown to Washington from Caleb Williams, making the score 31-16 USC. This was de Laura’s eighth interception of the season.
The Arizona offense took over possession at their 30-yard-line where de Laura would advance to the USC 19 with the help of DJ Williams and Tetairoa McMillan. The Wildcats were able to score with a pass to the back of the end zone that was caught by Dorian Singer for his second touchdown of the game, making the score 31-23 USC.
The Wildcats’ defense would follow their touchdown by forcing the Trojans to punt for the first time tonight. The special teams put pressure on the punter giving the Arizona offense the ball at their 43-yard-line. On the first play of the drive, de Laura connected with Jacob Cowing for 37 yards. This led to another Arizona touchdown run from running back Michael Wiley to make the score 31-29 after an unsuccessful 2-point conversion attempt.
The Trojans responded with another touchdown pass from Caleb Williams to Kyle Ford to make the score 38-29 USC.
After a few minutes of light action, the Trojans drove down the field and scored on a short run up the middle from Travis Dye to extend their lead to 16 with just over six minutes left in the game.
The Arizona football team would respond with another Singer touchdown. The successful 2-point conversion made it 45-37 USC. This was Singer’s third touchdown of the game.
With a minute left, the Arizona defense had the Trojans at 4th down and 1, and a stop would give Arizona the ball with a minute left in a one-score game. The Trojans would convert on 4th down to end the game and win 45-37.
The Arizona football team will travel to the University of Utah to take on the Utes on Saturday, Nov. 5.
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