Matt Barkley threw two touchdown passed and the University of Southern California defense rebounded from a lackluster performance last week to lead the Trojans to a 17-14 victory over Virginia on Saturday.

Barkley and the Trojans offense only had one big quarter, but it was enough to earn the victory as the USC defense kept Virginia bottled up for most of the game.

Barkley completed 20-of-35 passes for 202 yards. He was not intercepted and tossed both of his scoring strikes in the second quarter.

The teams combined for 21 points in the final four minutes of the first half after a scoreless first quarter. USC (2-0) opened the scoring on a 4-yard TD pass from Barkley to Jordan Cameron with 3:43 left in the second quarter. Virginia answered 2:30 later with a 6-yard TD run by Keith Payne to make it 7-7.

Barkley gave USC the lead for good with just one second left before halftime when he found Brandon Carswell down the middle of the Cavaliers defense for a 12-yard scoring strike to put the Trojans ahead 14-7 at the break.

USC added a 34-yard field goal by Joe Houston with 5:34 to play to cap their scoring.

It was a bounce-back performance for the Southern California defense, which was shredded for 588 yards, including 459 passing, by Hawaii in the Trojans' season-opening victory last week. The Trojans effectively shut down the passing game against Virginia (1-1), allowing quarterback Marc Verica just 189 yards passing with 82 of them coming on a scoring drive in the final minute with the game effectively decided.

Verica finished 17-of-37 with a TD and an interception. He hit Kris Burd for a 3-yard TD with seven seconds left to cut the lead to 17-14, but the Cavaliers were unable to recover an onside kick and USC ran out the final seconds.