Portola, behind 3-TD effort of Nova Kebeli, rallies for 28-24 victory over Northwood

Portola players celebrate after Friday’s win over Northwood. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)

Portola’s football team is going into its bye week with a 6-0 record but the Bulldogs had to work extra hard Friday night to keep the mark perfect.

Portola withstood a big challenge from Northwood but rallied for a 28-24 non-league victory at Irvine Stadium in a battle of two Pacific Coast Conference teams.

In the end, Portola’s defense, which notched four interceptions, and the county’s leading rusher Nova Kebeli, turned out to be the difference. Kebeli scored three touchdowns, including the go-ahead 25-yard TD run with 7:05 remaining. He rushed for 268 yards on 32 carries.

Northwood running back Adam Harper, back from an injury, played his heart out rushing for 144 yards on 25 carries and scoring two touchdowns. He also had several long kick-off returns, including the first one of the game for 50 yards that set up the first score for Northwood (2-3).

“Overall, a win is a win, we’re happy to have it,” said Portola Coach Peter Abe. “At the end of the day, Northwood rested up after a couple of weeks and came out firing. We looked super sluggish out there and didn’t make the plays that we needed to make.

“I’ve watched probably three games of Northwood in terms of scouting. We knew that if (Harper) comes back, they’re a whole different team and they came out to play. On any given Friday night, especially with these conference games, inter-city games, it’s anybody’s ball game. They had to deal with some injuries at the beginning of the year, and now it looks like they got everybody back and they’re going to be a terror the next couple of weeks.”

Portola had two direct snaps that resulted in a total loss of 33 yards, causing concern for Abe. He thought the Bulldogs could have played better in other areas too.

But Portola still made the plays when it had to.

Harper scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with 1:52 left in the third quarter to give Northwood a 24-21 lead. But Portola responded in the fourth quarter with Kebeli’s third TD.

“That guy has been our guy the last two and a half years,” Abe said. “Give number 22 (Kebeli) the rock and usually good things happen. The defense stepped up big and the offense did what they needed to do in the last drive or two.”

“It was a tough one, we came out slow in the first half,” said Kebeli. “At halftime, we talked about what we needed to improve on and came out in the second half, we just played Bulldog football. At the end, great results came after that.”

The game-winning touchdown run stood out.

“It was amazing, if it wasn’t for my linemen and tight end, I wouldn’t be able to score that touchdown,” Kebeli said.

Northwood came out fired up on its first drive and moved ahead 7-0 when quarterback Eugene Miyata connected with Ryan Kessler on a 20-yard TD pass.

Portola tied it 7-7 on Kebeli’s 11-yard TD run but Northwood regained the lead 10-7 on a 30-yard field goal by Lucas Old. The Timberwolves extended their lead to 17-7 on Harper’s 2-yard TD run.

Portola trimmed the margin to 17-14 when quarterback Sonny Tierney threw a 63-yard TD pass to Samuel Sandoval. Then Kebeli put the Bulldogs ahead 21-17 with a 72-yard run with 4:42 left in the first half.

Tierney wound up with 108 passing yards while Miyata had 101 yards passing. Sandoval had three catches for 106 yards and Kessler had four catches for 62 yards.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com