The Burbank High football team kept things simple Friday night when the Bulldogs opened Arroyo League play on the road at Monrovia.
But what some may not know is that it wasn’t by design. A flu bug hampered the Bulldogs throughout the week, leaving coach Hector Valencia no room to experiment with any new plays.
Fortunately everything worked well as Burbank earned a convincing 35-6 victory over the host Wildcats.
“I don’t think I had more than 17 guys at practice any day this week,” Valencia said. “We had a tough week of practice. We stayed with what we do. We didn’t try to change anything.”
Burbank (4-3, 1-0) got on the board midway through the first quarter, and never looked back.
Monrovia (4-3, 0-1) scored its lone touchdown in the final seconds of the game after Burbank had removed many of its starters.
Troy Wells scored the first touchdown of the contest at the 5:45 mark of the first quarter on an 8-yard-run. He finished with 138 yards in 20 carries.
The Bulldogs made a huge statement early in the second quarter when they scored a touchdown facing a fourth down and 22 yards situation.
Quarterback Damian Corona hooked up with receiver Diego Plancarte on a 28-yard touchdown at the 10:46 mark. He finished the night with 120 yards passing, completing nine of 15 attempts.
Corona added a 4-yard run of his own at the 3:36 mark of the second quarter to give Burbank a 21-0 halftime cushion.
Monrovia did make a run down the field in the third quarter. But an interception by Burbank’s Dash Middleton stopped the threat.
Giovanni Bernardo scored on a 1-yard run with 7:58 to play to push the Burbank lead to 28-0.
Burbank then took advantage of a fumble recovery by Wells after Monrovia snapped the ball over the head of its quarterback.
On the next play Corona hooked up with Gavin Azizian on a 12-yard touchdown.
“This is a big confidence builder to think that we came out and played and really dominated in a lot of aspects,” Valencia said. “We played a very talented and disciplined La Canada team next week. They are well coached, so it is going to be a tough battle.”
