USC
1-0
Hawaii
0-1
Team Stats
Trojans Cruise Past Hawaii, 62-7
September 05, 1999 | Football
Sept. 5, 1999
By GORDON SAKAMOTO
Associated Press Writer
HONOLULU (AP) - Southern California wants to make sure it doesn't get overlooked in this week's national rankings.
After dropping two places to No. 21, despite not having playing a down, Carson Palmer and Malaefou MacKenzie accounted for five touchdowns Saturday night as the Trojans overpowered Hawaii, 62-7, extending the nation's longest losing streak to 19.
It also ruined the Hawaii coaching debut of June Jones, who rejected an offer from the San Diego Chargers to take over the downtrodden program at his alma mater.
Carson Palmer, only the second freshman to start at quarterback at USC, completed 14 of 16 passes for 167 yards and one score. He also added another TD on a nifty 9-yard bootleg around right end.
Meanwhile MacKenzie, trying to re-establish himself after a devastating knee injury in last season's opener, scored three times on short plunges. He finished with 25 yards on 8 carries, while last year's leading rusher Chad Morton added 95 yards on 19 carries as the Trojans totally dominated the outmanned Rainbows.
Southern California wrapped up the game early, scoring the first six times it had the ball.
It was 17-0 after the first quarter, 41-0 at the half and 55-7 at the three-quarter mark.
After David Newbury kicked a 48-yard field goal to open the scoring, Palmer connected with Windrell Hayes on a 32-yard scoring play and then the sophomore quarterback scored on the bootleg.
MacKenzie scored his first two touchdowns on runs of 3 and 1 yards and Morton ran in from 17 yards to build the blowout to 38-0. Then, with backup quarterback Mike Van Raaphorst handling the offense, Newbury capped the first-half scoring with a 34-yard field goal with no time left.
MacKenzie's third TD and a 46-yard fumble return by Markus Steele in the third quarter were sandwiched around Hawaii's only points of the night, a 21-yard interception return by Quincy Lejay.
A 5-yard run by Sultan McCullough in the final minutes capped the Trojans' rout.
Hawaii struggles appeared early. The Rainbows made it into USC territory only once during the first 30 minutes. That came late in the second quarter, with the score 38-0, on a 26-yard pass from Dan Robinson to Dwight Carter, which put the ball on the Trojans' 27. However, Robinson fumbled two plays later to kill the threat.
In the first period, the Rainbows had more penalties (6) than first downs (4).
Robinson finished with 16 completions in 39 attempts for 149 yards.
