The effort that the Burbank High football team put up Friday night against host Don Lugo wasn’t the best of the season, but it certainly wasn’t anything to be ashamed of.
Attempting to get back into a CIF Southern Section championship game, the Bulldogs fell short as the host Conquistadores came up with a 28-7 Division 7 semifinal playoff victory in Chino.
“A lot of kids could have left and gone to another school. For them to stick around and trust in me that means the world to me,” first-year Burbank coach Adam Colman said. “I’m so proud of what they have accomplished this year. To come back from a team that went to the championship and set all these records and graduated all these guys, to tie that school wins record to win the first outright league title, all that they’ve accomplished I’m proud of that. It’s special.”
Burbank (10-3) played solid defense throughout much of the contest, against the team it defeated 41-14 in the CIF semifinals a year ago.
Don Lugo’s Khoury Bethley, a University of Hawaii commit, scored all four of his team’s touchdowns and remembered what it was like to lose to Burbank.
“They got us last and we wanted to get some payback and redemption,” Bethley said. “Jet sweep is their go-to play and we knew we had to shut that down. We didn’t do that last year so we had to change the game plan this year and we got the job done.”
Darnell Williams led Burbank with 60 yards in 15 carries in the final game of his three-year varsity career. Junior quarterback Matthew Porras rushed for 30 yards.
The Bulldogs’ lone touchdown came in the second quarter when Porras found junior flanker Chadz Vang on a 25-yard passing play. Porras finished with 102 yards passing.
Trailing 14-7, Burbank had a chance to tie the game on the last play of the first half as Porras threw a long pass that nearly connected with tight end Duncan Smith in the end zone.
Don Lugo coach Greg Gano, who has won four CIF titles as a coach, praised Burbank.
“They kicked the … out of us last year so we knew what we needed to do and we did it,” Gano said.
Don Lugo improves to 11-2 and will face El Modena of Orange for the CIF title.
