CV Too Tough - Boy's Water Polo

BOYS’ WATER POLO: Burbank can’t stay with Falcons in suffering 15-6 Pacific League loss.

By Gabriel Rizk, Burbank Leader
Published: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 10:07

LA CRESCENTA — Upending defending Pacific League champion Crescenta Valley High won’t be an easy task for any of the other teams looking to make a run at the league title, as Burbank found out on Tuesday at Crescenta Valley.The Falcons’ starters made their point early, putting up 10 unanswered goals in the first period, and the reserves that made up most of the lineup for the final three quarters were pretty effective themselves, in securing a 15-6 win the league opener for both teams.

“We just wanted to keep it simple, get our passes down, see each other and get an early lead so we could get the bench in,” said Falcons senior hole/set Chris Veselich, who scored three goals, assisted on another and was one of several Crescenta Valley starters who didn’t see action after the first quarter. Forty-five seconds into the match, Matt Peters scored to ignite the Falcons’ overwhelming run. Beginning at the 5:34 mark, Crescenta Valley strung together four more goals in the span of a minute.

Alan Dearman muscled his way in for a short goal to make it 2-0, then Veselich drove down the middle, dishing to Peters on the left wing for the Falcons’ third goal. A steal by goalkeeper Rane Colvin sparked a Matt Peters goal on the counter attack, before another steal, this one in the middle of a Burbank 6-5 advantage, led to a Veselich goal and a 5-0 lead.

“They’re very physical and they press and they counter attack, they’ve been doing that for a long time,” said Burbank Coach Carlos Pelayo, a Crescenta Valley graduate. “We just weren’t ready to match their intensity yet. The big thing we’re trying to work on is consistency.”The Falcons closed out the quarter with two more tallies from Veselich and one apiece from Peters, Dearman and Andrew De Jong.

Burbank got on the board at the 3:39 mark of the second quarter on a long straight shot by Zachary Card and shut the Falcons out in the quarter while getting its second goal of the match from Samuel Akopian with 37 seconds left in the half. But Crescenta Valley guarded well against any Bulldogs second-half comeback attempt behind good defense and two goals apiece from Jordan Adajar and Spencer Duke and one from Shiraz Arslanian.

“They played well and they need experience,” Crescenta Valley Coach Jan Sakonju said of his second unit. “Doing things in practice versus an actual game is completely different, so that gets them some needed playing time so they can develop their roles as we move into playoffs. ”Akopian scored two more goals in the second half for Burbank, which also got goals from Dimitar Tantchev and Nicholas Vitagliano.