Everyone knew was that the winner of the Burroughs and Crescenta Valley football game would be guaranteed a playoff spot in the first year of the Boulder League.
What nobody expected was that is would be a wet and sloppy affair. Rain came down for a short time in La Crescenta during the first quarter and that’s when the host Falcons were at their best. They rolled to a 28-7 win over the Bears.
Even though the coaches did not make excuses, the rain clearly affected both teams with a number of fumbles, dropped passes and players who weren’t able to run as fast as they normally do.
“We had a whole rain practice the other day. We failed to execute what we needed to execute tonight, which comes back on us coaches for not preparing them well enough to do things right when we need to do them right,” Burroughs coach Jose Calzadilla said.
CV (5-4 overall, 3-2 in league) scored on the first play from scrimmage, as quarterback Julian Savery hooked up with receiver Ethan Martinez on a short pass that became a 56-yard touchdown.
Burroughs (3-6 overall, 2-3 in league) fumbled the ball away on its first series. The Falcons scored two plays later as Phoenix Vengco broke loose on a 50-yard touchdown run.
The Bears fought back later in the first quarter, as Sho Fujita scored on a 1-yard run. Fujita finished with 139 yards in 25 carries.
Burroughs got a break on the ensuing kickoff as CV also could not hold onto the wet football.
The Bears recovered the ball at the 48-yard-line, but were unable to gain a first down.
After punting the ball, CV started from its own 12-yard line. But on the first play of the drive, Vengco got loose once again, running 85 yards before being stopped at the 2-yard line.
Quarterback Julian Savery later scored on a keeper with 42.9 seconds left in the first quarter.
Things got much tighter after the first quarter.
The only other touchdown the rest of the game came late in the second quarter when Burroughs’ punter Michael Hernandez lost the grip of the ball and was tackled at the 5-yard line.
Vengco later scored on a 2-yard run. He finished with 180 yards in 12 carries with a pair of touchdowns.
Brandon Chapparo came in to play quarterback in the second half. He ran with the ball nine times for 64 yards.
Calzadilla said he hopes the preparation for next week’s game with Burbank will be better.
“We’ll start watching film tomorrow and evaluate them. We even went and watched them against Muir, so we have some fresh stuff,” he said.
