Balanced offensive attack leads Portola to opening Kappa League win over Sunny Hills

Portola was led by (from left) Jamal Abdelkarim, Orion Suttle and Gavin Morrell in Friday night’s win. (PHOTO: Jake Rhodes, For OC Sports Zone).

By JAKE RHODES

For OC Sports Zone

After performing well in the non-league part of the schedule, Portola’s football team kept it rolling Friday night.

The Bulldogs used a balanced offense and a stingy defense to secure the win in their Kappa League opener on the road, defeating Sunny Hills 26-6 at Buena Park Stadium.

Portola Coach Peter Abe said his defense is giving up an average of about 10 points a game, and that number was in jeopardy on Sunny Hills’ opening drive.

The Lancers marched down the field to start the game, opening the game with a nine play drive. Sunny Hills (2-4, 0-1) ran the ball on six of those nine plays, using a combination of senior running backs JD Yang, McAnthony Decastro and Bryan Inzunza. 

Inzunza is the one who found the end zone from 14 yards out. He was stopped at the line of scrimmage, but then found a way to bounce the ball back outside and scamper in for the score. The Lancers had their PAT blocked, which gave them a 6-0 lead with 8:02 left in the first quarter.

Despite the quick score, Abe knew his defense would be able to bounce back from the early hiccup.

“The way we want to play, it’s not necessarily about what they did or reacting to what an opponent does,” said Abe. “We have a full game left at that point … They did a good job. Good play, good for them. Now what are we going to do?”

What Portola (5-1, 1-0) did was respond in 15 seconds of game time.

On their second offensive play of the game, senior running back Gavin Morrell took a counter up the middle and looked like he was shot out of a cannon, running 55 yards for the equalizing touchdown for the Bulldogs.

“I think it [the touchdown] helped set the tone because the very first drive we got scored on,” said Morrell. “When I scored that touchdown, it helped to shift the momentum back to us.”

Morrell carried the ball 15 times, racking up 97 yards and the one score.

After a couple of punts from both sides, Portola struck again to take the lead, this time through the air. With 13 seconds left in the first quarter, senior quarterback Orion Suttle found his favorite target, senior wide receiver Jamal Abdelkarim for two big chunk plays on the drive, including a 21-yard screen that Abdelkarim took to the house for a TD to put the Bulldogs up 12-6.

Abdelkarim said he and his quarterback had a great connection, and it showed in how often the senior was targeted. He caught nine passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns.

His second touchdown reception came on Portola’s next drive, as Abdelkarim made a great catch near the front pylon to secure the score.

Coming out of halftime, Portola asserted its dominance with a drive featuring six positive runs and Suttle going 3-for-3 on the drive, which finished with a nice pitch and catch in the back of the end zone to senior wide receiver Galileo Chen for a 17-yard touchdown.

Suttle had an efficient day on the field, completing 14 of 23 passes for 147 yards and three touchdowns. He also took some big hits in this game, but always popped back up and kept things moving.

The bright spot for the Sunny Hills defense was a great catch on an interception made by sophomore defensive back James Falleta thanks to a double pass attempt thrown by Chen in the fourth quarter.

Unfortunately for the Lancers, Chen plays both sides of the ball. On the very next play, Chen picked off junior quarterback Owen Zeiler in the middle of the field, essentially icing this game for Portola.

Sunny Hills Coach Luis Cruz was clear that the effort of his team was not the reason the Lancers came up short in this contest.

“We fought well and effort wasn’t an issue,” said Cruz. “We just need to play better in big moments… but the effort was there.”