Ryan Mendoza kicked a 26-yard field with no time remaining as Burbank High escaped with a 29-26 win over St. Genevieve in a nonleague football game at Los Angeles Valley College.
The kick for Mendoza was his second chance. He had an attempt from 32 yards partially blocked on the previous play. But a flag was thrown against St. Genevieve for running into Mendoza.
“They’re not supposed to touch me. Thank goodness I got another shot. Thankfully we didn’t have to go into overtime,” Mendoza said.
Burbank (1-1) overcame 12 penalties for 105 yards to defeat the host Valiants in a tight battle that the Bulldogs never trailed in.
St. Genevieve (1-1) hung tough all game long and tied the Bulldogs with 6:57 to play when quarterback Michael Wynn scored on a two-point conversion. He had hooked up with receiver Samar Valera on a 27-yard touchdown to set up the two-point conversion attempt.
Sophomore Deshawn Laporte started at quarterback for the Bulldogs. Daniel Zacariaz, who was the Bulldogs starter last season, played one series late in the first half. He is still nursing an ankle injury, which he suffered in the first week of the season.
Laporte completed 18 of 30 passes for 206 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
Zacariaz was three of six for 35 yards and had one interception.
Burbank got the ball first and ate up much of the clock in the first quarter. Laporte hooked up with Exodus Freeman on a 14-yard touchdown with 4:42 left in the period.
St. Genevieve made it 7-6 as Jaylin Burt scored on a 7-yard run with 2:19 left in the first quarter.
Burbank increased its lead to 13-6 as Landon Williams scored on a 3-yard run with 11:17 left in the first half.
The Bulldogs got a big touchdown from junior Elijah Pendleton, who ran 96 yards with 8:53 left in the first half. He finished with eight carries for 116 yards and a touchdown. He also caught eight passes for 111 yards and a touchdown.
Burt scored on a 2-yard run with 2:50 left in the first half to cut St. Genevieve’s deficit to 20-12.
Burt came up big on the defensive end in the third quarter as he intercepted Laporte and ran back a touchdown from 10 yards out. That made it 20-18 after St. Genevieve failed the two-point conversion.
Facing a fourth-down situation, Laporte hooked up with Pendleton on a 6-yard touchdown pass with 5:04 left to play, putting Burbank up 26-18.
“The kids really needed this after last week. The kids didn’t get down on themselves all week. They felt if they could just fix some things and play our style of football,” Burbank coach Hector Valencia said.
Burbank has a bye next week and will host Fillmore in two weeks at Memorial Field.
