PHOTOS, VIDEO: Portola celebrates biggest win in school history, topping Beckman 27-10

Nova Kebeli of Portola celebrates with his teammates after the game. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone).

Portola High’s football team sent out a big message to the rest of the Pacific Coast League Friday night. 

The Bulldogs are for real. 

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

Portola won a hard-fought league opener over Beckman 27-10 at Portola behind the passing of Brandon Yue (165 yards passing, one TD) and the rushing of Nova Kebeli (120 yards, two TDs). Kaveh Wojtowich had field goals of 20 and 41 yards for the Bulldogs.

Portola is 5-1 and Beckman 3-3.

“When you start a program with 12 guys, you have to have that foresight and guys got to buy into the program to get to a day like this,” said Portola Coach Peter Abe. “For sure, our seniors, our hats are off to those guys because we’ve had plenty of ups and downs, too many to count.

“These guys just stayed together and rallied around the program. As they got older, they learned how to lead by example.”

It was the first league win for Portola which is in its second varsity season.

Two of those seniors helped Portola jump out to an early lead. Yue connected with Joey Omar on a 31-yard TD pass to put Portola ahead 6-0.

Beckman moved ahead 7-6 when quarterback Jason Cheng scrambled in for a score from 6 yards out. But Wojtowich hit a 20 yard field goal as time expired to put Portola ahead 9-7 at halftime.

In the third quarter, the Bulldogs moved ahead 16-7 on Kebeli’s 8-yard TD run. But Beckman cut the lead to 16-10 on a 26-yard field goal by Alex Diego.

Portola finished strong. In the fourth quarter, Wojtowich had a 41-yard field goal and Kebeli an 18-yard TD run.

Later the Bulldogs had a big celebration in front of their home fans.

“This victory means a lot,” said Yue. “We’ve been working for this for four years, ever since our freshman year and it’s great to see the hard work we put in paid off this week.”

Portola’s defense was also solid led by lineman Jared Van Haeren, who had a key sack.

“We’ve been for this for a long time,” Van Haeren said. “To see us win, made a difference not only for us, our program and everybody who is watching us. That first win, I think, sparked some more victories.”

Cheng wound up passing for 140 yards for Beckman, which is also expected to be in the hunt for the league title. Jett Daviss rushed for 72 yards on 16 carries and Cheng also picked up 60 yards rushed.

Aiden Fordyce had seven catches for 80 yards for Beckman and Wojtowich had four catches for 61 yards for Portola.

Beckman was hurt by penalties including three personal fouls in the first half and one Patriot was ejected.

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