Warren’s big effort leads Burbank football to league-opening victory
PASADENA — Rarely, if at all, did Nick Warren come off the field.
The Burbank High running back/safety didn’t want to spend any time on the sideline. The senior wanted to stay busy on both sides of the ball trying to make an impact for the Bulldogs.
Warren and Burbank started Pacific League play Friday night on the right note, as he scored two rushing touchdowns and intercepted a pair of passes en route to a 39-14 road victory against Muir.
“I just tried to keep my head up and make big plays,” said Warren, who rushed for 88 yards in 23 carries. “We had some good practices all week and having the bye helped us prepare and give us extra time to get in condition.
“I don’t really want to come off the field.”
Burbank (2-2) topped Muir (2-2) for the first time since 2011. The Mustangs came in ranked eighth in CIF Southern Section Division VIII.
Burbank, which suffered a 7-6 nonleague road defeat against Downey on Sept. 9, looked sharp throughout most of the game and limited Muir to just 138 yards of offense.
The Bulldogs took charge right away, taking an 8-0 lead with 4:12 left in the first quarter. Quarterback Guy Gibbs tossed a two-yard touchdown pass to Darnelll Williams to make it 6-0 and the duo converted on the two-point conversion to make it 8-0.
Then Warren went to work on defense in the second quarter. He picked off a pass at the Muir 45-yard line and returned it to the 23 with 7:04 left. It led to a 37-yard field goal by Andrew Rovira to make it 11-0 with 5:44 remaining in the second quarter.
Muir bounced back on the ensuing possession, getting a 49-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Darren Meyers to Ahmir Davis to cut the deficit to make it 11-6 with 3:57 to go. Jordan Baker ran it in for the two-point conversion to make it 11-8.
Burbank’s Matthew Villagran recovered a fumble on the Muir 18-yard line with just less than two minutes remaining in the half. Warren then scored on a four-yard run to extend the lead to 18-8 with 1:07 to go.
Warren intercepted a pass at the Burbank 40 with 54.3 left in the half, setting up another Burbank score. Joey Miller caught an eight-yard pass from Hobbs with 12.8 seconds left to make it 25-8.
“I thought we came out and played with some passion,” said Burbank Coach Richard Broussard, who saw Hibbs complete eight of 11 passes for 88 yards. “We have some lulls where we execute and then we don’t.
“We had a good week with the bye and were able to clean some things up. [Warren] played so well. He’s one of our pulses. We expect a lot from his and he delivered.”
Miguel Vasquez blocked a punt for Burbank at the Muir 12-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Warren completed his impressive effort with a two-yard touchdown run to make it 32-8 with 10:10 remaining.
David then returned the kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown to bring Muir to within 32-14 with 9:56 left.
Jake Kelley of Burbank recovered a fumble at the Muir 31-yard line. Williams then closed out the scoring on a two-yard run with 6:49 to go. Williams finished with 46 yards rushing in 12 carries.
Burbank will compete in another road league road contest at 7 p.m. Thursday against Glendale.
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Charles Rich, charles.rich@latimes.com
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
