Garenn Figueroa, the 15-year-old boy from Palmdale who suffered from bone cancer and whose name appeared on Mark Sanchez’s eye-black earlier this season, died over the weekend, according to the USC Sports Information Department.

Here’s a comment from Sanchez:

“I was so, so sad to hear about Garenn’s passing. My heart goes out to his family. He was such a neat kid and a real Trojan fan. It was a privilege to get to know him.

“My teammates, Coach Carroll and I all cherished the opportunity we had to play a small part in his life and to help him deal with his situation. The time we had with him was as valuable to us as we hope it was for him. We talk about competing here at USC all the time, and Garenn epitomized that philosophy. He competed fiercely against his disease and lived longer than many predicted he would.

“I know Garenn would want us to do what he always did, and that’s live the Trojan spirit and fight on.”

More from the USC blog:

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• Grading the Trojans: USC’s offense vs. Stanford
• Grading the Trojans: USC’s defense vs. Stanford
• Grading the Trojans: USC’s special teams vs. Stanford
• Grading the Trojans: USC’s coaching vs. Stanford
• USC football: 100 games in, 15 losses bug Carroll the most
• USC football: Carroll takes shot at SEC
• USC football: Carroll says call against Turner was wrong
• USC football: McKnight aggravates toe injury

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