Burroughs boys’ soccer completes league championship quest

The Burroughs High boys’ soccer team wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

The Indians came into Thursday afternoon’s match with cross-town rival Burbank having already clinched a share of the Pacific League championship. With Crescenta Valley able to grab a share of the title with a win, coupled with an Indians’ loss, Burroughs had plenty of motivation in the regular season finale.

With the focus on securing the league crown for themselves, the Indians came out inspired against the host Bulldogs, dominated play and ultimately celebrated a 4-1 victory.

The league title was the first in three seasons for Burroughs (17-4-4, 11-2-1 in league for 34 points), which finished three points ahead of runner-up Crescenta Valley (9-1-4 in league for 31 points). It also broke a string of back-to-back championships for Pasadena.

In addition, it is the 10th league crown in program history for the Indians, who have now won as many titles in the Foothill League (five) as they have in the Pacific League (five).

“We wanted to come out, play hard, not give them an inch and claim the title for ourselves,” said Burroughs senior Cameron Kelly, who had a goal and an assist. “We just didn’t want to have to share it with anybody. We worked so hard to get here and we didn’t want to lose that chance.”

The loss ended what has been a challenging season for the Bulldogs (0-13-5, 0-11-3). Burbank lost eight matches by a one-goal margin.

“This team never gave up, from minute one to minute 80,” Burbank assistant coach Michael Alcarez said. “We lost some close games and that just shows the fight in these guys. These guys maintained their fight all season, no matter how bad it got, and I’m proud of them for that.

“We have some young guys who have definitely learned a lot and a good core of them are going to stick around and they’ll be back next year.”

Burroughs dictated the tempo of the match and the Indians clamped down on the Bulldogs, giving them precious few scoring opportunities. The Indians outshot the Bulldogs, 17-4.

With plenty of scoring chances early, the Indians finally got on the board in the 21st minute when senior Jake Lasso scored on an assist from Erik Camarillo. Lasso was a terror during league play, scoring 13 of his team-leading 16 goals this season.

It didn’t take Burroughs long to increase its lead to 2-0. In the 23rd minute, junior Evan Parisi-Sanchez scored on an assist from senior Anton Prather after a throw-in from Kelly.

With a two-goal lead at the half, the Indians added to their advantage in the 61st minute. Lasso made a pass upfield to senior Nicky Reinoso, who raced past the Burbank defense and fired a shot low and to the right that got past the goalkeeper.

Kelly scored a goal on an assist from senior Richard Alonzo in the 65th minute to give Burroughs a 4-0 cushion.

“We played pretty well early on and that’s not how we usually play, because we really have been a second-half team,” Burroughs Coach Mike Kodama said. “But we were able to get two in the first half and they just kept going.

“The defense was just amazing today. We have a great goalie in Jordan [Morgan] and a defense with guys like Diego [Galaviz], Richard [Alonzo], and Ari [Arango] and Josh [Sanchez] and that is a five group back that plays really well together.”

Burbank broke up the shutout with a goal in the 72nd minute by Omar Ibnoujala.