Being great requires beating great teams.
Friday night the Burbank High football team didn’t just win 56-28 over San Dimas, the Bulldogs did it over a program that hasn’t missed the CIF playoffs in more than two decades.
In just the season opener, the Bulldogs looked like a well-oiled machine ready for the playoffs.
“All the preparation that we’ve done, the kids know what they need to do,” Burbank coach Hector Valencia said. “They know how to get open and be in the positions that they need to be in. DeShawn (Laporte) did an outstanding job scrambling. He didn’t take a sack.”
Although Burbank (1-0) was for the most part in control throughout the contest, San Dimas did not go down easily.
The turning point in the contest came late in the third quarter when San Dimas threw a pass on a fake punt.
Burbank’s Chase Miles intercepted that pass and returned the ball to the San Dimas 19-yard-line. At the time Burbank led just 33-28.
“We were nervous because we were not stopping them at the beginning of the game. We capitalized on a couple of mistakes that they made,” Valencia said.
Four plays later Burbank went back in front by two scores when Elijah Pendleton scored on a 11-yard run.
The Bulldogs then recovered the ensuing kickoff as San Dimas appeared confused as to who was going to handle the kickoff. Burbank’s Adrian Albarran recovered the ball at the 32-yard-line.
Two plays later, Thomas Adzhemyan scored on a 7-yard run.
Burbank added a late touchdown when Laporte hooked up with Tyler Hudson on a 2-yard reception. Laporte finished 18 of 26 passing for 319 yards, with five touchdowns and just one interception.
Pendleton got things started by scoring on a 1-yard run with 5:36 left in the first quarter.
San Dimas got back on level terms late in the first quarter on a 4-yard by Liam Loyola.
Burbank responded less than a minute later as Laporte hooked up with Exodus Freeman on a 40-yard touchdown pass.
Pendleton scored on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Laporte early in the second quarter.
Later in the quarter Laporte hooked up with Diego Plancarte on a 30-yard touchdown pass.
Laporte and Freeman connected on a 5-yard touchdown with 8:21 left in the third quarter.
