Teams aren’t supposed to be clicking on all cylinders in week one of the football season.
But when a program has gone to the playoffs for 20 consecutive seasons it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that visiting San Dimas ran away with a 49-14 victory over Burbank Friday night at Memorial Field.
“We’re a senior heavy team and we’re super fortunate that we’ve got guys who have played in our system since they were in middle school quite frankly,” San Dimas coach Mark Holman said.
After engaging in tough battle early on, San Dimas scored 35 unanswered points after Burbank tied things at 14 with 9:41 left in the first half.
Julian Vigil had just eight carries for 143 yards, but four of those end in the end zone, as Burbank’s defense had no answer for him.
“We knew coming in that they were a great running team. We knew it was going to be a tough challenge to stop their running game,” Burbank coach Hector Valencia said. “Offensively we made some mistakes. We had some great drives and a penalty would set us back. Once we learn how to fix those mistakes, we’ll be more steady.”
Burbank took an early 7-0 lead as Joseph Caballero scored on a 6-yard run with 6:35 left in the first quarter.
Less than two minutes later Vigil scored his first touchdown to get the Saints back on level terms.
San Dimas went up 14-7 with 1:48 left in the first quarter when quarterback Brandon Meredith hooked up with Caleb Morquecho on a 45-yard touchdown pass.
Burbank tied things with 9:41 left in the first half when Max Kelley made a leaping 20-yard touchdown catch on a pass from Bulldog starting quarterback Daniel Zacariaz.
Zacariaz left the game in the second quarter with a left ankle injury, but said he expects to be back next week.
Vigil scored two more touchdowns in the second quarter to give San Dimas a 28-14 lead.
Burbank’s Elijah Pendleton returned a kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown only to see it called back due to a penalty.
San Dimas got two second-half touchdowns from Morquecho and one more from Vigil.
Burbank got fine effort’s from backup quarterback Deshawn Laporte and receiver Tyler Hudson.
Burbank will play St. Genevieve at Los Angeles Valley College next Friday night.
