By Rick Assad
For twenty-eight action-packed minutes under a bright and glorious sun, two boys’ water polo teams stood toe-to-toe and gave everything they had in a Pacific League match on Thursday afternoon.
The visitors led by one goal after the first period and pulled ahead by four goals at halftime and after being outscored 6-3 across the second half, Burbank High held on for a 11-10 triumph in the league finale over longtime rival Burroughs in a match that will long be remembered.
“That was two teams going to battle. I’m very proud of how my team played today,” Burbank coach David Arakelyan said. “We took the lead early. Burroughs had a good run there late in the third quarter to bring the game back.”
Arakelyan, a onetime Burroughs water polo standout, added: “The fourth quarter was amazing,” he said. “We just never gave up. This late in the season, it’s great to see the team be able to face adversity and come out on the other side of it.”
What will follow is the league tournament which should be an amazing display of talent and grit by both Burbank and Burroughs.
Martin Ortega Jennison is the Burroughs coach and saw good things from his team despite coming up short.
“We came out flat. We didn’t play very well as a team and didn’t follow our game plan,” he said. “We also went one for seven on man-up advantages, so we clearly struggled scoring the ball. We had every opportunity to win or be ahead but falling behind early is hard to climb out of.”
Ortega Jennison knows his club will meet Burbank and feels they will be much improved.
“We luckily get to play Burbank again for our league tournament so we will be back and better prepared,” he said.
The Bulldogs, who outshot the Bears 39-32 and 21-16 in the opening half, were led in scoring by sophomore center/defender Avvo Ilangesyan, who tallied a match-best five goals, with three of the goals being scored in the opening half when Burbank led 8-4 and added four steals and an assist.
Ilangesyan’s most important tally came with 2:49 remaining in the match from nine feet for an 11-10 lead.
Senior Logan Turla paced the Bears with three goals while senior Harrison Siegel and senior Ian Duffield each accounted for two goals.
With mere seconds left on the clock in the fourth period, Siegel had what would be the last shot.
The left-hander’s attempt came within inches of tying the match, but his throw from 14 feet hit the right upright and bounced away.
“Overall it was a great game. Both teams showed up and played their best,” Siegel said. “I knew the last shot was going to be our last attempt, and I was in open water so I took it.”
Siegel was disappointed but still proud of what the team did during the season.
“My miss didn’t take away from everything we accomplished as a team,” he explained. “The atmosphere was amazing and it was a great way to end the season.”
Burbank senior goalie Christian Lazaryan and Burroughs senior net keeper Atticus Mata turned away numerous shots and each averaged less than three goals allowed for every seven minutes.
The Bears (16-7 and 4-3 for fourth place in league) made a mad dash in the third period with five goals and outscored the Bulldogs (16-11 and 5-2 for second place in league) by three goals that cut the lead to 10-9 entering the final period.
After Ilangesyan scored from close range with 4:53 left to make it 9-4, the Bears scored the next three goals.
Dean Yuzna’s nine-footer with 4:31 remaining sliced the lead to 9-5 and a bullet from Nicola Nasev from 12 feet with 3:05 left on the ticker made it 9-6.
When Turla located the back of the net from 12 feet and 2:34 remaining, Burbank’s lead evaporated to 9-7.
Junior Leo Khachaturian’s nine-footer for Burbank and 1:46 on the clock made it 10-7, but Duffield’s shot from point-blank range and 1:11 left narrowed the lead to 10-8.
Aiden Means also found the range for the Bears with thirty-eight seconds left trimming the deficit to 10-9.
Arakelyan pointed out that this week hasn’t been easy for his squad.
“We had two games this week that went down to the wire, a quadruple overtime game against Hoover where we won 13-12, and a hard fought win against Burroughs,” he pointed out. “This is huge for us going into the league tournament. We now look forward to the league tournament, and hope to fix these little mistakes by the time these games take place.”
One goal by each team was recorded in the fourth frame as Siegel’s goal with 4:29 left from close range tied it at 10-10 as the capacity crowd sensed that the match was going to be close.
Duffield began the scoring when he tossed in a close range shot with 6:04 left for a 1-0 lead, but Burbank senior utility Gevorg Choginyan tossed in a seven-footer with 5:26 remaining that evened it at 1-1.
Siegel’s shot from nine feet and 4:37 left put the Bears ahead 2-1, but Ilangesyan answered with a point-blank rocket and 2:56 left that leveled it at 2-2.
Turla’s tally from 12 feet and forty-three seconds later made it 3-2 in favor of the Bears.
Burbank finished the frame in style scoring the final two goals as senior driver Greg Baboudian hit a seven-footer with 1:55 left that tied it at 3-3.
Ilangesyan’s 10-footer and fifteen seconds remaining made it 4-3 in favor of the visitors.
Burbank scored four goals in the second period as senior center Avet Avetisyan hit back-to-back close-range tallies that made it 5-3 with 6:24 left and 6-3 with 5:20 on the clock.
Burbank’s lead swelled to 7-4 on a nine-footer from Choginyan with 4:22 left and Ilangesyan added a tally from seven feet with 1:16 for an 8-4 advantage.
Duffield hit a short shot with 4:03 remaining that trimmed the lead to 7-4.
