May 14, 2024

OC Sports Zone: Community First

Beckman strikes often in 37-13 PCL victory over Portola

Beckman’s Omar Abdullah scores his first touchdown Thursday night against Portola at Tustin.

Beckman’s football team was clicking on all cylinders Thursday night in its Pacific Coast League opener with Portola.

The Patriots dominated from the start and captured a 37-13 victory at Tustin to improve their overall record to 4-2.

To see the slide show, please click on the first photo.

Senior Omar Abdullah scored four touchdowns, two rushing and two receiving to lead the Patriots.

It was the first PCL game ever for Portola (2-4, 0-1).

“I’m really happy for our seniors because they’ve actually never won more than two games in a season,” said Beckman Coach Marcello Giuliano. “So for them to be able to experience a little bit of success and get their first league win ever is a big deal.”

Abdullah wound up with 92 yards rushing and 81 yards in receiving.

He hauled in two 17-yard TD catches from quarterback Jason Cheng in the first half and scored on touchdown runs of 1 and 16 yards in the second half.

“He’s pretty big and he ran hard,” Giuliano said. “It was a good match-up for him.”

Cheng was also solid completing 16 of 24 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns.

“I thought it was good,” Giuliano said. “Over the last few weeks, we’ve gotten away from certain elements of our offense so we had committed to get back to it and improve and so he executed it really well tonight.”

Jett Daviss also had a solid game for Beckman rushing for 112 yards on 16 carries and a 24-yard TD in the first quarter.

Quarterback Brandon Yue led Portola passing for 97 yards.

But Beckman was able to limit the Bulldogs to 106 yards on the ground. Trevor Yue led the way with 59 yards rushing.

“I think the kids played hard for four quarters,” said Portola Coach Peter Abe. “They didn’t back down from the physicality of the Pacific Coast League. I have to look at the film obviously but I  think there is a whole lot more consistency than we’ve had in the last three and a half weeks.

“So it was a step forward and we keep moving and keep the train going. That’s all we’re trying to. We are looking to find consistent game speed so we need to try and replicate that in practice, which is hard. I think, not the result you want on the scoreboard but we’re thinking long term so we’re trying to make sure we teach them how to play the game the right way.”

Beckman moved out to a 10-0 lead on a 31-yard field goal by Jerel Coleman in the first quarter.

Portola scored later in the quarter when quarterback Brandon Yue connected with Kaveh Wojtowich on a 46-yard TD pass play.

But Beckman countered with four consecutive touchdowns by Abdullah to put the game away.

Portola scored in the final minute on a  5-yard TD run by Kai Horn.

STATS

POR            6     0    0    7     –  13

BECK          17    6   7     7     –  37

RUSHING: Por T. Yue 14-59, B. Yue 11-25; Beck Daviss 16-112, Abdullah 7-92.

PASSING: Por B. Yue 9-16-0, 1 TD, 97 yards; Beck Cheng 16-24-0, 2 TDs, 217 yards.

RECEIVING: Por Wojtowich 4-72, Hill 5-89, Abdullah 5-81.