You won’t find his name in the stat sheet, but the Burbank High football team is very lucky to have junior linebacker Thomas Adzhemyan on its team.
He forced two fumbles in the red zone that ended up as turnovers for his team as the Bulldogs escaped with a 47-42 victory over host Monrovia in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 9 football playoffs.
“The whole week we were practicing drills for turnovers. We knew the turnover battle was going to be the difference in the game,” Adzhemyan said.
Burbank will now host Highland of Palmdale at Memorial Field next Friday night.
“He was flying all over the field. He’s on the back side, so a lot of times he’s away from the play,” Burbank coach Hector Valencia said of Adzhemyan.
Burbank (9-2) led 47-21 with 7:55 left to play, before Monrovia rallied to score three more touchdowns to make things interesting at the end.
The Bulldogs opened the scoring with Elijah Pendleton scoring on a 4-yard run with 9:21 left in the first quarter. Pendleton finished with 18 carries for 131 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
Monrovia was driving deep into Burbank territory when Adzhemyan forced a fumble at the 5-yard-line in the first quarter.
Pendleton scored on a 2-yard run at the 1:36 mark of the first quarter to make it 14-0.
The Bulldogs extended their lead to 20-0 after Deshawn Laporte hooked up with Daniel Zacariaz on a 10-yard touchdown with 8:46 left in the second quarter.
Monrovia (8-3) came back as freshman quarterback Jesse Saucedo scored on a 2-yard run with 6:35 left before halftime.
Just before halftime, Monrovia was driving deep into Burbank territory when Adzhemyan forced Saucedo to lose control of the ball and it was recovered by Pendleton.
Laporte had a stellar third quarter. He hooked up with Tyler Hudson on a 41-yard touchdown pass and later with Chase Miles on a 45-yard touchdown. This put Burbank up 33-7 and it looked like things would cruise to the finish.
But Monrovia returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown.
Burbank answered back when Laporte hooked up with Exodus Freeman on a 13-yard touchdown.
Monrovia would fight back, however.
The Wildcats scored on the final play of the third quarter to cut the deficit to 40-21.
Pendleton scored his third touchdown, a 5-yard run with 7:55 left in the third quarter.
Monrovia scored three more times in the fourth quarter, nearly giving Burbank a scare at the end.
Laporte finished by completing 18 of 24 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns.
Saucedo completed 17 of 25 passes for 242 yards and a pair of touchdowns through the air.
