Daviss has a night to remember leading Beckman to 27-7 victory over Portola

Jett Daviss and his Beckman teammates listen to a post-game talk by Coach Marcello Giuliano Thursday night. (Photo TIm Burt, OC Sports Zone)

Beckman High senior Jett Daviss has had many outstanding games in his career but Thursday night’s effort leading the Patriots to a 27-7 nonleague victory over Portola may rank right at the top.

Daviss rushed for 203 yards on 31 carries and scored three touchdowns to lead the Patriots to the win at Tustin. Both teams are part of the Pacific Coast Conference, but in different leagues within the conference.

“I’m really happy to get a W, because it’s senior night and we weren’t that good our freshman year so it’s really nice to just come together and get it together and be better than we were back then,” Daviss said.

Daviss said he remembers a previous high of around 150 yards rushing. Beckman Coach Marcello Giuliano has always looked for Daviss to have big games.

“He’s been a workhorse for three years and tonight, he just had an amazing game,” Giuliano said.

Beckman had to make a major adjustment this week at quarterback with senior Jeffrey Graham taking over for starter Carlos Dubon, who was broke his hand n the loss to Dana Hills last week. Graham had three completions for 32 yards and scored a TD.

‘It was amazing, we played a really, really good football team and we played really, really well,” Giuliano said. “We have all the respect in the world for Portola obviously and our kids really showed up. We had built the offense around him (Dubon) so we really had to change it up on a short week and we had a ton of guys step up and our defense was phenomenal tonight. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Beckman (1-1) put together an impressive first drive, capped by a 1-yard TD run by Daviss midway through the first quarter. Daviss scored from 16 yards out with 9:26 left in the second quarter to give Beckman a 14-0 lead.

Portola (1-1) got back into the game when Nova Kebeli scored from one yard out to close the gap to 14-7. The TD was set up by a 15-yard pass from quarterback Aidan Russell to Josh Collins.

Beckman led 14-7 after three quarters and added two more scores on Graham’s 6-yard TD run and Daviss 3-yard score.

Beckman was tough against the pass, intercepting two passes and also forced a fumble. Portola was also victimized by 80 yards in penalties. Kebeli led the offense with 104 yards rushing.

“It was definitely not the way we wanted to come out,” said Portola Coach Peter Abe. “But penalties get the best of you and it’s tough to get put in those long-range situations and then when you’re playing a team like Beckman, you need to control the ball because that’s what they’re going to do. That was a tough pill to swallow.

“We definitely have to tighten up our execution…..penalties were way lopsided and hurt us and hard to move the ball when you’re going the opposite direction.”

“LIke I told the guys, you got to get back and look at the film and learn from your mistakes and try to get after it in week one of league (vs. Northwood at home).”

Portola captured the Pacific Coast League title in 2019. Then, it became the Pacific Coast Conference which was scheduled to start play in August before the coronavirus pandemic struck and delayed the season until March.’

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

VIDEO COURTESY KHAMIS PRODUCTIONS