Weems Era at Harbor Opens With 26-6 Win

Harbor College opened its football season with an impressive 26-6 victory over Victor Valley in Coach Don Weems’ debut.

The Seahawks, starting a mostly freshman lineup, took a 7-0 first-quarter lead when Casey Causey returned an interception 18 yards for the score.

The run-oriented Harbor offense, efficiently guided by quarterback Christian Capper, got untracked in the second quarter. Bill Harris, who had a 101-yard kickoff return nullified by a penalty, capped a drive with a six-yard scoring run. Later in the quarter, Camron Pitcher broke away on a 40-yard scoring run. With kicker Jose Rocha adding two points-after, Harbor took a 20-0 lead at halftime.

Harbor built its advantage to 26-0 in the fourth quarter on a 10-yard run by Phillip Robbins before Victor Valley (1-1) finally got on the scoreboard. Kicking with a brisk wind, the home team’s Kevin Bryant booted a pair of 56-yard field goals for all the points.

The victory matched Harbor’s total for last year and came in the school’s only nonconference game. The Seahawks open Western States Conference play Saturday at Santa Monica College, where Weems previously coached.

College action Saturday: At Portland, Ore., before a crowd of 1,157, the second-ranked University of Portland defeated Loyola Marymount, 4-1, in a West Coast Conference soccer game. The Lions, 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the WCC, were trailing 2-0 at halftime but pulled to within 2-1 on Jan Klein’s unassisted goal at 49 minutes. However, Portland answered with a goal at 55:40 and scored again later.

The Lions managed only five shots on goal, while Portland had 28. However, Loyola goalie Alex Poli recorded six saves to keep the game close.

Loyola plays a nonconference game today at Oregon State before returning to Los Angeles.