BHS Football - Week 7

Burbank High's Sam Bethany, right, intercepts a pass during a Pacific League game against Glendale. (Roger Wilson/The Leader).

Burbank Leader

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Bulldogs come undone

FOOTBALL: Burbank can’t get anything going in the second half in a 37-14 league loss to host Glendale.
By Gabriel Rizk

GLENDALE — In need of a turnaround to bolster its playoff hopes, the Burbank High football team was undone by two costly second-half turnovers instead.Going head-to-head with a Glendale squad that is one of several other teams bunched near the middle of the Pacific League ladder, the Bulldogs slipped a rung on Thursday night, losing, 37-14, to fall to 1-3 in league with three games left.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Glendale’s effort, but we beat ourselves pretty bad tonight,” said second-year Burbank Coach Ted Amorosi, who formerly coached the Nitros. “We dropped five passes and had nine penalties in the first half alone.“[The Nitros] continued to convert on third-and-long situations when [our defense] had done a great job on first and second down. We don’t convert.”Glendale (4-3, 1-3 in league) was seven of 12 on third down, while the Bulldogs (3-4 overall) were just two for 12 and did not score over the final 29-plus minutes of the game.Burbank’s opening drive of the third quarter moved 52 yards to the Nitros’ 8-yard line, but stalled on third and goal with a sack of quarterback Kevin Hunter by Aaron Baykov for an eight-yard loss at the 4:22 mark.The Bulldogs came up wide left on the ensuing 33-yard field goal attempt and remained behind, 24-14.With just under three minutes left in the third quarter,

Burbank defensive lineman Justin Maroldi recovered a fumble by Nitros quarterback Moises Chavez on the Glendale 47-yard line. But on the very next play, Burbank was unable to hold onto the football and lost a fumble right back to the Nitros’ Jean Khajarian.Glendale then drove 45 yards for a score and a 30-14 lead on Chavez’s 26-yard pass to Jordan Bradshaw with just over 1:00 left in the third quarter.“That was it,” Amorosi said. “If we had been able to turn that one into eight points, then we’re right back in the game within one score.“We were actually gonna go for the onside kick to start it off, but handing it right back to them is not the way to win a football game.”A missed point-after attempt on Glendale’s touchdown allowed Burbank to stay within two possessions and the

Bulldogs had the ball with 8:00 to play in the game.But a Baykov interception of a tipped pass at the 7:39 mark of the fourth quarter sealed the win for Glendale.That turnover led to the Nitros’ final touchdown, a two-yard hookup between Chavez and Bradshaw at the 4:48 mark.Chavez passed for a career-high 331 yards and five touchdowns, with four of those caught by Bradshaw, who finished with 224 receiving yards.Burbank scored first, on a nine-yard run by Darian Walker that capped off a 61-yard drive with 12 seconds left in the first quarter.Glendale went up, 14-7, during a four-minute span in the second quarter that saw the Nitros score on a 12-yard pass form Chavez to Charles Crosby, recover an onside kick and score again on a 34-yard Chavez-Bradshaw connection.An interception of Chavez and 39-yard return by Sam Bethany set up Burbank with first and goal on the Nitros’ 6-yard line. Bethany then scored on a one-yard run at the 5:21 mark of the second period to tie the game at 14.

“We need to win our football game this Thursday against Hoover,” said Amorosi, whose team was coming off a 47-7 loss to Muir and closes out the season against Arcadia and archrival Burroughs. “That’s the only thing we can control right now.”