LOS ANGELES — As World Series shockwaves that spread from Chavez Ravine slowly settled in the second quarter, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam five miles north setting off a thinned-out crowd at the Coliseum, USC’s Kyle Ford turned upfield on a crossing route and delivered his own dash of Los Angeles magic.

Six months earlier, the senior receiver – traitorous for a season, playing a year for UCLA after beginning his career as a Trojan – announced his return to USC with a simple proclamation: “My fault I was trippin.” His return east, though, had largely come up empty for seven games. But when opportunity struck Friday night against Rutgers, Ford seized it and didn’t trip, nabbing a pass from quarterback Miller Moss and breaking free in open turf.

Rutgers defensive back Bo Mascoe approached. Ford extended his right arm at his facemask. Mascoe went sprawling, and Ford kept churning, and flew skyward into the end zone a few steps later over another Rutgers defender. Two broken tackles. Touchdown.

Ten minutes remained in the second quarter. And it was, still, the hardest USC’s offense had to work all night.

The Trojans bludgeoned Rutgers from end to end Friday night, turning swaths of open turf into another victory for the West Coast on a momentous sports night for Los Angeles, downing the Scarlet Knights 42-20 at the Coliseum.

Steady-as-ever bellcow back Woody Marks provided the first punch, scoring three first-quarter touchdowns. Moss threw a constant flurry of jabs from kickoff to buzzer, finishing 20 of 28 for 308 yards. And sophomore receiver Makai Lemon provided the knockout, with 70-yard and 40-yard third-quarter catch-and-runs on the same crossing routes that confounded Rutgers all night long.

These Trojans returned home the Friday night of a short week, wounded physically and in ego after a handful of debilitating cross-country trips. Head coach Lincoln Riley, accepting blame with nowhere else to put it, needed a shining moment as a play-caller. Moss, calling Monday for critics to “keep that same energy,” needed a mistake-free night. And the program, most of all, needed to finish a football game, bungling away four close games into a 3-4 record.

“We’ve had some opportunities to separate in some games, and we haven’t,” Riley said Monday.

They separated Friday, as Ford separated from that second-quarter tackle. Separated, as Los Alamitos High product Lemon separated in the second half, finishing with 256 all-purpose yards in a true breakout of a catch-and-go day.

The hardest these Trojans had to strain ultimately came at the hands of defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, put in a highly unenviable position with a rash of injuries. Safety Kamari Ramsey, cornerbacks Jaylin Smith and Jacobe Covington, and nickel Greedy Vance Jr. all were scratched Friday, leaving USC down four erstwhile starters — and soon five, as defensive tackle Nate Clifton exited in the first quarter on an already-thin defensive line.

In the second quarter, after Ford’s get-off-me touchdown put USC up 21-3, Lynn threw a heavy dosage of soft coverage at the Scarlet Knights. Quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis entered Friday’s matchup commandeering one of the poorer passing attacks in the FBS, hauling in a 53% completion rate. But chunk-yardage cushions gave him sudden comfort, and Kaliakmanis marched Rutgers down the field on a pair of 22- and-15-yard completions before the Scarlet Knights’ Antwan Raymond punched it in to cut USC’s lead to two scores.

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And like so many other scripts before in this confounding 2024 season, USC came out of the second-half gates flat. Kaliakmanis, after missing a couple deep shots in the first half, hit on a 45-yard bomb to Dymere Miller and then a 25-yard touchdown strike to Christian Dremel. Suddenly, after a nifty two-point conversion, Rutgers had cut USC’s lead to a score, and another game dangled in the balance.

But Riley brought USC immediately back, throwing another crossing-route concept at Rutgers on a subsequent play, as Lemon freewheeled to a 70-yard catch-and-run. Moss, after weeks of calls for his job, finished the drive with a touchdown keeper and finished another with a 40-yard touchdown catch-and-run to Lemon.

And USC, finally, found Big Ten closure.