Photos by Morgan Wright
Having split two previous meetings, Burbank and Burroughs had a chance to settle the score Wednesday at Arcadia High in the final of the Pacific League Tournament.
After trailing for much of the match Burroughs prevailed 8-6 in the end by scoring three goals in the final quarter.
“The thing I’ve pushed to them all year long is when things don’t go our way, how do we react. Do we get frustrated, do we let it pull us down or do we find a way to battle back,” Burroughs coach Martin Ortega Jennison said. “I think it was important that they showed that composure and kept it together. Two goals late in the fourth quarter is huge.”
Burroughs (19-7) finished fourth in league during round robin play, but got to the final after upsetting top-seeded Arcadia in the semifinals.
Burbank (18-13) finished third in league during round robin play, but upset Crescenta Valley in the other semifinal.
Under the Pacific League rules, Arcadia was declared the league champion based upon the combined results of round robin league play and the tournament.
However, Burroughs will be the designated top team from the Pacific League for the CIF playoffs. Burbank will be designated as the second team from the Pacific.
“Compared to other games we came in a lot more prepared. We got off on a good start. It was our inability to finish. Our boys worked really hard and had their chances to finish. They were just a little unlucky. This was the most energetic game I’ve seen in my time here,” Burbank assistant coach Hayk Atanasyan said.
Atanasyan took over the team head coach David Arakelyan was shown a red card with 32 seconds remaining in the match.
Burroughs 6-foot-4 junior Nicola Nasev scored with 2:07 left to play to give the Bears their first lead. He scored again with 32 seconds remaining to push the advantage to two goals.
“Our coach changed our game plan a little bit because Burbank was reading our offense. We changed it up a little and we stuck to the fundamentals,” Nasev said.
Burbank got two goals early on by Avo Ilangesyan.
Burroughs countered with a goal from Ian Duffield and evened things with a goal from Aidan Means.
Burbank re-took the lead on a goal by Avet Avetisyan and doubled the advantage with another goal by Ilangesyan.
Nasev’s first goal, which he snuck in a the back post with 3:40 left in the first half made it 4-3.
Burroughs tied things with 5:32 left in the third quarter on a long-distance shot by Logan Turla that found the right corner.
Avetisyan’s goal with 3:58 left in the third quarter put Burbank back on top. Duffield was able to score an empty netter for Burroughs with 2:43 left in the third as Burbank goalie Christian Lazaryan had come out to attempt to intercept the ball.
Burbank’s Greg Baboudjian put Burbank up 6-5 with 2:01 left in third quarter.
Burroughs got a goal from Dean Yuzna to start the fourth quarter.
Bears goalie Atticus Mata finished with 13 saves.
“We had a ton of turnovers in the beginning. We stopped that and found a lot of good shots inside and we really buffed up our defense. Defense is the most important thing for any sort of game,” Mata said.
