USC’s football team beat Arizona State, 34-13 on Homecoming Day, to keep the Trojans’ Rose Bowl hopes alive. USC now just needs to beat UCLA next week, and hope Washington State loses to Washington next week and to UCLA on Dec. 7. (Or, hope Washington State wins both of those games, and hope either Miami or Ohio State loses to somebody, so Washington State will go to the national-championship Fiesta Bowl and USC will weasel into the Rose Bowl via the back door.)

Meanwhile, USC’s women’s soccer team beat San Diego on Friday, 1-0 in overtime, to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Women of Troy’s next opponent: archrival UCLA, tomorrow at 1:00 PM, for the right to play in the Sweet 16.

Also on Friday, the women’s basketball team won their season opener, the women’s volleyball team swept UCLA, and the men’s water polo team beat UCSB.

Hail the conquering Trojans!

Getting back to football for a second: it’s too bad Ohio State pulled off another close victory, beating Illinois by a touchdown, because a Buckeye loss would have improved USC’s Rose Bowl hopes a lot (by improving Washington State’s Fiesta Bowl hopes). But Texas’s loss to Texas Tech is very good news for USC; if Texas had finished in the BCS Top 4, but had failed to win its conference (which seemed likely), the Longhorns would have gotten an automatic at-large BCS bid. Now that almost certainly won’t happen, which opens the door a little wider for the Trojans to secure that bid… to the Rose Bowl if the Cougars go Fiesta, or perhaps to the Orange or Sugar Bowl, even if the Cougars don’t. Only time will tell.

One more thing, not USC-related: the Newington High School football team lost a heartbreaker to Bristol Central, 26-20, Friday night at home. The Indians had a chance to make a late comeback when Bristol Central had a 4th-and-1 at their own 39 with 2:20 left, but before the Rams could even snap the ball to punt it away, the Indians committed a personal foul, giving Central an automatic first down and sealing the loss. Newington falls to 3-7 on the year. Still, the Indians have a chance to wrap up their best season in years — and their first Thanksgiving win since I was in middle school — when they play lowly Wethersfield (1-8-1) on Thanksgiving morning. Let’s hope for the best. Go Indians!