Burroughs Brushes Aside Harvard-Westlake

Bears win season opener with shutout victory.

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Burroughs senior quarterback Chris Kulikov, shown in an earlier game, has seen steady improvement. (Photo by Ross A. Benson)

The Burroughs High football team did not open the season by clicking on all cylinders. But the general feeling is that the Bears certainly have the potential to do just that.

Burroughs had little difficulty with Harvard-Westlake in the season opener Friday night, winning 28-0 at Memorial Field.
“The offensive was pretty inconsistent at times, but the defense, we needed to shut (them) down, and they got some red-zone situations and our guys came up big,” Burroughs coach Jesse Craven said.

(Photo by Ross A Benson)

Burroughs managed much of the clock in the first quarter and finally scored when quarterback Chris Kulikov scored on an 8-yard-run with 1:51 left in the period.
Defensively, Burroughs controlled the line of scrimmage, led by Reese Shuton, who came up with a number of stops.
Kulikov hooked up with Jake Scozzola on a 21-yard touchdown with 4:08 left in the first half to push the advantage to 14-0.
The Bears then caught the Wolverines off guard as they recovered an onside kick. Two plays later, Kulikov hooked up with Ryan Hernandez on an 8-yard touchdown to make it 21-0 with 3:09 left in the half.
Burroughs sophomore Elijah Ware came up with an interception in the third quarter to stop Harvard-Westlake’s momentum.

They set up a fourth touchdown, as Kulikov hooked up with Alex Valenzuela on a 9-yard touchdown with 6:15 left in the third quarter.
The Bears stopped yet another Harvard-Westlake drove deep into Burroughs territory when Ethan Hubbell intercepted freshman quarterback Aaryan Mehdi Williams.
Kulikov, who completed 11 of 22 passes for 115 yards and three touchdowns, said this team has something special.

“It’s the brotherhood. It’s not about the game, it’s not about what the score is. We came in, they beat us 39-14 last year and ran up the score on us and we showed them how we play football,” Kulikov said.
Burroughs travels to Fillmore in Ventura County next Friday.