It’s too early to tell which teams will be in line to contend for the Pacific League championship.
Burroughs High boys’ soccer coach Makan Afzali would like to have the Bears in position to be one of those squads. It might take some time to get on track for that to come to fruition.
Burroughs yielded a natural hat trick to Edgar Naghdalyan and suffered a 7-0 home defeat against Glendale in a league opener for both teams Tuesday at Memorial Field.
“Glendale is a very good team and they have a lot of experience with like 15 or 16 seniors,” said Afzali, who took over the program last season. “We have a younger squad with not as many seniors. Experience played a key role in this game today.
“I thought we played much better in the first half, but we need to get better at some things.”
Glendale (2-0-1) turned to Naghdalyan to get the early jump on Burroughs (1-2) in the first of two head-to-head meetings this season.
Naghdalyan made it 1-0 in the 10th minute to give the Nitros a 1-0 advantage before making it 2-0 in the 18th minute. Glendale, which took second in league behind Crescenta Valley and reached the CIF Southern Section Division V quarterfinals last season, held a 2-0 halftime lead.
Burroughs, which finished sixth in league a season ago, had difficulty containing Glendale’s speed and couldn’t generate many scoring opportunities.
The Nitros padded the lead to 3-0 when Naghdalyan completed his hat trick in the 47th minute.
Burroughs’ best scoring chance came in the 57th minute, when a direct kick by Danny Pascual hit the right post.
Glendale increased its lead to 4-0 on a goal by Hani Anhmadie in the 61st minute. Felix Martirosyan scored two goals about a minute apart to make it 6-0 before Kevin Anjunyan closed out the scoring in the 77th minute.
Burroughs, which began the season with a 4-3 nonleague home defeat to West Ranch on Nov. 28 before earning a 2-1 nonleague win against visiting Schurr on Saturday, finished with six shots on goal.
The Bears and Nitros will meet again Jan. 9 at Glendale.
Burroughs will compete in another home league match against Arcadia at 3:45 p.m. Friday.
“We need to level up on defense and play more physical in the backfield,” Mazali said.
