BHS Soccer Missing Starters!

Burbank's Christian Garcia heads the ball as Hoover's Romel Sarkisloo looks on. (Roger Wilson/The Leader)

BOYS’ SOCCER: Missing five of its starters, Burbank loses league match to Hoover, 1-0.
By Jeff Tully, Burbank Leader
Published: Last Updated Tuesday, January 12, 2010

BURBANK HIGH — Hoover High boys’ soccer Coach Kevin Cadenas knows what it’s like to play against Burbank High. As an athlete at cross-town rival Burroughs, Cadenas played his share of contests against the Bulldogs, even going up against current Burbank Coach Frank Chavez.In a Pacific League match Monday, Cadenas — in his first season — found out what it’s like to coach against a team from his home city, as his Tornadoes played at Burbank High. Although the coach wasn’t completely pleased with his team’s performance, Hoover was able to eek out a 1-0 victory.

“No, I’m not happy with the way that we played,” said Cadenas, a 2006 Burroughs graduate who played under revered Indians Coach Mike Kodama, as well as playing for the Burbank Red Machine club team.“This is a good group and they played hard. But our big problem is that we just don’t finish the opportunities we create. We just have to do a better job at finishing.”Hoover (3-2-2, 1-1-2 in league) took on a Burbank (8-6, 2-2) squad that was noticeably depleted.

The Bulldogs were playing without the services of five starters who were sidelined with injuries or grade problems. To make matters worse, Burbank lost another starter midway trough the match. The loss was the second straight for the Bulldogs — who fell to Arcadia, 3-0 on Friday — after beginning the league campaign with two victories.

“It is really a combination of things,” Chavez said, referring to his Bulldogs’ woes as of late. “I have players playing in different positions and I had to bring up some JV players to play on varsity. We have some other problems as well. So, it’s everything put together.”The lineup challenges prompted Chavez to move starting goalkeeper Michael Alcarez to defense. In his place, junior Andrew Maldonago started in the net. Maldonago’s play was one of Burbank’s high points of the match, as he made 10 saves and stopped Hoover standout Arman Ter-Barseghyan on a penalty kick in the second half. “He played pretty well,” Chavez said of his goalkeeper. “Except the goal [Hoover] scored was his fault.”

The Tornadoes came out and dominated the first half, limiting the Bulldogs to just one shot on goal through the first 40 minutes.Hoover tallied the match’s only goal in the 12th minute when Ter-Barseghyan got the ball on the right side and rifled a shot across the goal. The shot finally came to rest in the lower-left corner of the net.Although Burbank played better in the second half, it was never able to score.“I thought Burbank started to control the midfield in the second half,” Cadenas said. ”Burbank’s best chance came in the 57th minute when Jeffrey Earle had a free kick from the left side. He blasted the offering and it curved toward the Hoover goal, but the ball banked off the crossbar and was cleared.