STATE COLLEGE — USC freshman phenom Trent Mosley made his return for Saturday night’s White Out game against Penn State.
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Mosley, one of the No. 19 Trojans’ top receivers, missed the previous three games due to injury and was listed as a game-time decision on the Big Ten Conference pregame availability report.
He hadn’t played a game since the Week 2 matchup against Louisiana on Aug. 12 due to a knee injury, but was quickly brought back into the fold in the opening quarter against Penn State.
The Santa Margarita product caught four passes for 53 yards, including a 19-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jayden Maiava on USC’s first drive of the game.
USC (5-2 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) was down two offensive linemen in Elijah Paige and Hayden Treter, who were on the field in sweatpants.
Treter has now missed two games due to an undisclosed injury, and it’s Paige’s first missed game of the season. The latter wasn’t even on the availability report until Saturday, when he was listed as a game-time decision.
The Trojans’ starting offensive line consisted of Justin Tauanuu, Alani Noa, Tobias Raymond, Kaylon Miller and Vlad Dyakonov.
Dyakonov is a freshman, and Saturday marked his first collegiate start.
The line allowed USC to collect 247 yards of total offense in the first half, but the Trojans struggled on the ground with just 37 rushing yards. They were tied with the Nittany Lions 17-17 at halftime.
Going the distance
Beaver Stadium was a sea of white shirts and jerseys on Saturday night, but some bold cardinal and gold mixed in.
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Trojan faithful came from around the country to support USC in Happy Valley, including St. Louis, Mo., resident Barry Albrecht, who tailgated with longtime friends and USC fans.
“It’s a justification to get people together who I normally wouldn’t see,” Albrecht said. “We do live all over the place. We had a great experience together, so I think that’s one of the highlights of why we try to put these things together.”
The Los Trojans, a traveling group of USC fans, also made the trip east and embraced being the smaller fanbase.
“It’s very different compared to the Coliseum, but it’s definitely a lot of fun,” Chino resident and USC alumnus Sergio Hidalgo said. “Everyone’s been really nice so far, and it being a White Out game makes it even more special because that’s something we’ve always seen on TV with my wife and kids, so it’s really cool.”
Ducks’ Trojan horse
Oregon’s duck mascot took a shot at USC during his pregame entrance before Saturday’s UCLA game. It entered Autzen Stadium inside a wooden Trojan Horse prop that had a red tongue comically sticking out of its mouth.
The duck jumped out of the back of the horse with a sword and shield, with the song “Old Town Road” playing. It waved them around before running back into the tunnel.
USC lost to Oregon, 41-27 on Sept. 26, and the Ducks ended up losing to UCLA 17-15 on Saturday.
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