Saturday at USC really was Mater Dei Day

USC placekicker Chase McGrath got excited when his high school teammates at Santa Ana Mater Dei, JT Daniels and Amon-ra St. Brown, committed to the Trojans last year.

As it turned out, the Daniels-led offense needed plenty of help from McGrath. The sophomore went five of five on field goal attempts, making kicks from 46, 38, 29, 47 and 36 yards on the way to tying USC’s school record for field goals in a game.

Column“That’s the bad news,” Helton said. “That’s called not putting the ball in the end zone. Early in the season I felt like we had to play great defense and great special teams while our offense grew up. I thought the kicker did a wonderful job. That’s 15 points. But as we know,…