USC Pulls Away from Penn State 31-23 in the Fourth
Jayden Maiava threw three touchdown passes and Penn State answered with a kicker. That, more or less, is the whole game, and it took the Trojans four quarters to settle it.
It was tied three times and the lead changed hands twice, so nobody ever got comfortable. Trent Mosley scored from 19 yards out in the first quarter, Rocco Becht tied it with a 13-yard pass to Andrew Rappleyea, and the two teams traded blows from there. USC went up 14-7 on Tanook Hines's 11-yard catch, Carson Hansen's three-yard run made it 14-14, and a Ryan Barker field goal from 48 yards as the half ended left it 17-17.
Penn State took its only lead at 20-17 on a 35-yard Barker kick early in the third. King Miller's 13-yard run put USC back up 24-20 with 5:38 left in the quarter, and Barker cut it to 24-23 with another field goal at the start of the fourth. Then Maiava hit Kayden Dixon-Wyatt from 10 yards at 11:11 and that was the last score of the day. Penn State got two field goals out of the second half and a touchdown out of none.
The yardage was close (433 for USC, 357 for Penn State), but the ground game was not: 132 rushing yards to 68. Neither side threw an interception, and Penn State lost one fumble. USC is 6-1 and Penn State is 3-3.
For fantasy, Maiava and his top target were the story. Becht's 289 yards and a touchdown still left him third on the board.