It isn’t about how one starts but how one finishes. The Burbank High football team told looked very solid early on in its second round CIF Southern Section Division 9 playoff contest against Highland of Palmdale.
But Highland made the necessary adjustments in the second half and won the battle of the Bulldogs, 42-28, at Memorial Field Friday night.
“They have a good quarterback and a good receiving core. They are well-coached. We started off in the zone. They sat down in those zones and found a lot of pockets. Our adjustment was to go more man and put our athletes up against their athletes and it forced the quarterback to run around a little bit,” Highland coach Justin Wyatt said.
Burbank coach Hector Valencia praised the effort of his team.
“Our kids battled until the end. That’s a very good Highland team. They were very disciplined, and they didn’t make a lot of mistakes,” Valencia said. “We kind of put ourselves in a hole with some penalties. Passing, I think we had some missed opportunities. We had some close throws. We were in a position to make those plays, but unfortunately, we did not capitalize.”
Burbank (9-3) twice had leads of 14 points and had put up 28 points in the first 18 minutes of the contest before being shut out the rest of the way.
On fourth down and goal from the 2-yard line, Deshawn Laporte was able to get his team on the scoreboard as he kept the ball himself in making it 6-0.
Laporte scored on a 5-yard run at the 2:40 mark of the first quarter to make it 14-0. He completed six of his first eight passes on the night, but finished just 10 of 25 for 184 yards.
Highland (8-4) relied almost solely on its run game. Its quarterback, Justin Wyatt Jr., had just 26 yards passing.
Running back Marcus Austin scored on a 4-yard run with 21.9 seconds left in the first quarter for his team’s first touchdown.
Burbank quickly took advantage of what time was left in the period as Laporte hooked up with Max Kelley on a 33-yard touchdown with just 11 seconds left. This put Burbank up 20-6.
Burbank turned the ball over early in the second quarter and Highland took advantage by putting together a seven-play 45-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard run by Roderick Erwin.
Once again, Burbank bounced right back as Laporte found Tyler Hudson on a 27-yard touchdown with 6:45 left in the half.
Highland’s Jaden Williams scored on a 16-yard run with 3:11 left in the half to make it 28-21.
Highland tied things with 7:56 left in the third quarter when Wyatt faked everyone and easily scored on a 17-yard run.
Erwin gave Highland its first lead at the 5:08 mark of the third quarter when he ran 43 yards up the middle for the touchdown. Highland also added a two-point conversion to make it 36-28.
Wyatt scored on a 2-yard run with 4:04 to play, giving Highland a 14-point lead.
Elijah Pendleton had 51 yards rushing in 10 carries for Burbank.
