The community is blessed with some great young soccer talents who figure to delight local fans for years to come. Here is how the teams figure to look this season.
Burroughs
The Bears went 6-9-1 overall last year and 5-8-1 in league.
This season’s squad is young, but very talented.
Junior Seven Elkin and freshman Ian Major are two quality midfielders who handle the ball and get things going.
Christopher Reyes will be the goalie with help from sophomore Jacob Saldana.
Defensively the Bears have senior Nicolas Di Gangi, sophomore Alan Gomez and junior Jackson Palmer.
In the midfield, Burroughs has senior Alex Loera, sophomore Timur Stakhiv and senior Winston Bromhead.
Freshman Justin Trigo is very talented up front and has paired with junior Jordan Seas.
Filing out the roster are seniors Nery Martinez, Nathan Juarez, Javier Espinoza, Isaiah Alvarado, Harout Hovakimyan and Andrew Perez.
Burroughs also has juniors James Narmore, Christopher Menendez-Meza, Justin Garcia, Massimo Sabato, Brayden Ghazarian.
Freshman Joseph Kaufman is another player with a bright future.
“Overall we have started with good energy and a good attitude in practices, so that makes me excited,” coach Makan Afzali said.
Burbank
The Bulldogs have a solid core returning from last season’s team, which finished 8-7-5 overall and 4-6-4 in league.
Senior Erik Antanesyan scored four goals last year and is the Bulldogs’ top returning scorer.
This season he may see some playing time up front, but he is expected to move into the goal. Fellow senior David Gundrachyan will also see time in goal.
Junior striker Aram Hovanessian and junior midfielder Raymond Soukiazian each scored three times last year. Hovanessian has already exceeded that total early on this season.
Freshman midfielder Davit Tadevosyan is very talented and has a bright future.
Defensively the Bulldogs also feature seniors Izel Ortega, Raffi Harutyunyan, Harout Krdanyan, Arthur Tovmasyan, Andre Zargaryan and Alfost Khalatyan, as well junior Victor Chtryan and sophomore Chase Verhoeven.
In the midfield, Burbank will also have seniors Samvel Stepanyan, Emin Nazarian, as well as juniors Mike Azdaridis, sophomores Joseph Chavez, Harout Akopyan and Ashot Grigoryan.
Up front, Burbank also has seniors Vahe Tsaturyan and Jose Morales and junior Diego Benis.
Providence
The Pioneers are young with just one senior in Alexander Mushamel.
There are two returning all-league players in junior Sean Banashek and sophomore Sam Hitchcock.
Junior Jacob Jimenez will handle the goalkeeping duties.
Junior Jose Donoso and sophomore James Pennie lead the defense.
Providence also has juniors John Matar and Sebastian Pepo, sophomores Diego Ahumada, Aram Mahroukian and Alex Salgado, as well as freshmen Cruz Camacho, Cinco Hogan, Nicolas Macho, Sam Nowak and Matthew Tatoussian.
