Boys’ Soccer Preview: Burbank, Burroughs soccer teams looking to rebound
It was definitely a down year last season for the local boys’ soccer teams, as only one of the four programs qualified for the CIF Southern Section playoffs.
That squad was Providence High, which fell in the wild-card round of the playoffs in overtime to St. Bonaventure, 2-1.
There was one other positive note from the 2014-15 campaign, as Bellarmine-Jefferson was able to bring back its program after three years without fielding a team. The Guards will again field a team this season, a co-ed squad that will play against other boys’ teams.
With a new league format that features just two Pacific League games a week instead of three, Burroughs and Burbank look to make a return to the Division III postseason.
Here is a closer look at how the teams are shaping up.
BURROUGHS
Just one season removed from winning back-to-back league championships, the Indians went 8-8-6, 5-5-4 in league and finished fifth a year ago.
With the league moving to the two-games-a-week format, what’s also new is teams will have to play the same opponent twice in the same week in a home-and-home series.
“It’s a better situation with teams the way the league is going to be this year because it’s really tough for the guys to play three games in one week,” Burroughs Coach Mike Kodama said. “That just takes a lot out of them. Playing two a week is much more manageable.
“But what that does is it pushes the league schedule up and we end up starting league earlier than we usually do. ...But what is strange about the home-and-home setup is that you play a team in December and than you don’t see them the rest of league play.”
Burroughs lost some key players to graduation, namely all-leaguers Andres Aguilar, VJ Salazar and Alberto Rodriguez.
“This year we are basically rebuilding most of the team,” Kodama said. “It’s going to be a very different team than what we had last year and maybe that’s good, because we struggled last year. We are going to be young, with a lot of juniors and a few seniors. But it’s OK; we’ve done this before.
“But we’ve had a lot of guys come out and they’ve shown that they are ready to go and they are working hard.”
The Indians have been without two key players heading into the season — senior defenders Cade Borland and Hunter Guerin — who were competing for the school’s football team that was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the playoffs Friday night. The two are cornerstones in the Burroughs defense.
“We not only miss those two guys for what they do on the field, but also their leadership qualities,” Kodama said. “Both of those guys work extremely hard.”
Key returning starters for the Indians are junior goalkeeper Jordan Morgan and senior defense Josh Sanchez. Other key players include senior midfielder Mitchell Kodama, junior midfielder/defender Cameron Kelly, junior forward Richard Alonzo, junior midfielder Ari Arango, junior forward/midfielder Nicky Reinoso and junior defender Erik Camarillo.
“In league, Pasadena returns some of their key players, so I expect them to be a good team,” Kodama said about the Bulldogs, who are ranked No. 4 in the CIF Division II preseason poll.
BURBANK
The Bulldogs are coming off a season in which they went 3-13-2 and 2-10-2 in the Pacific League for seventh place out of eight teams.
“Looking at what we have, I expect us to be pretty competitive this season,” Bulldogs Coach Loi Phan said. “I got most of the guys from last year returning, so that’s good. We didn’t do that well last season early in the year and we had some injuries. But we showed what we were capable of toward the end of the season when we were healthy — we played a lot better.
“If we can stay healthy, we should be a competitive team. It used to be eligibility that we had to worry about, but now it’s all about injuries. Last year we lost two to three guys to injuries every single game, it was crazy.”
Phan agrees with Kodama about the new league schedule in terms of playing just two matches a week, but isn’t happy about the home-and-home format.
“I don’t like having to play the same team twice in one week,” he said. “I think they could have changed the schedule around so that doesn’t happen.”
Some of Burbank’s key returners are senior goalkeeper Andrew Hank, along with two all-league players, senior defense Patrick Lance and junior utility Gianluca Vitagliano. In the midfield, senior Serozh Kirakosyan will be looked upon to steady the Bulldogs offense and Fernando Chavez will be a key on defense.
“We have some players who have the talent,” Phan said. “We just have to be able to put it all together. Those will be our key guys, then we have some role players who should help us a lot.”
Phan concurs with Kodama that Pasadena should be the team to beat in the Pacific League.
“This league is always tough,” Phan said. “Teams beat teams they shouldn’t beat and some teams lose to teams they shouldn’t lose to. So we expect a tough battle.”
PROVIDENCE
The Pioneers enjoyed a successful campaign a season ago, finishing with a 7-8-3 record and a 4-1-3 showing in the International League for second place.
“We did lose some seniors from last year and we had one player who did transfer to another school,” Pioneers Coach Rimal Patel said. “But we do have a good group back from last year’s team. We also have four freshmen who have made the varsity team, so that’s always nice.
“So far the team looks pretty good and I’m looking forward to seeing how they are going to do this season.”
One of the freshmen Patel has high hopes for is Drake Sahm, who will patrol the midfield.
“He is just very, very confident on the ball,” Patel said. “He is also great at communicating and distributing the ball to teammates. So we think he has a very productive four years in front of him.”
The Pioneers’ starting goalkeeper is expected to be another freshman, Joshua Bamba. Two other impact players are sophomore midfielder Paul Swaine and sophomore wing Elias Ferguson.
“There are other players we are expecting a lot from,” Patel said. “We have our spots pretty much set. ...But Paul is just a special player because he has such good ball control. He is a nightmare to defend against because you don’t know what he’s going to do with the ball.”
Last year’s league championship was won by Yeshiva, while Providence was runner-up.
“The league has shrunk a little this year with Trinity [Classical Academy] and [Santa Clarita Christian] leaving,” Patel said. “But one team that left our sister league to join ours is [Armenian General Benevolent Union], so it will be a bit different. But I expect Yeshiva will probably give us the best competition.”
BELL-JEFF
The Guards are coming off a season in which they went 1-9 overall as well as in the Santa Fe League, placing sixth out of six teams.
Because Bell-Jeff doesn’t not have a girls’ team this season, female players are allowed to compete on the boys’ squad.
“We decided that because there were some girls at the school who really wanted to play soccer, even though there wasn’t enough for a team, that we would have a co-ed team,” Guards Coach Brandon France said. “We didn’t want to discourage the girls who really wanted to play ...And we’re able to do that because of Title IX.
“We are going to play a full boys’ schedule. Hopefully as our numbers grow in the future we will be able to have a full girls’ team along with a full boys’ team. “
Returning for Bell-Jeff is junior defender Jorge Figueroa and senior defender Brandon Jimenez. France hopes newcomers such as freshmen forwards Andrew Kim Forward and Efran Tavakolishanjani will be able to contribute right away.
“They bring experience and great knowledge of the game,” France said of the two freshmen.
St. Anthony is the defending champion in the Santa Fe League.
“We are really promoting the whole family concept with this team,” France said. “And we just want to build on what we started last season in bringing the program back. We want to continue to take steps in the right direction.”
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Jeff Tully, jeff.tully@latimes.com
Twitter: @jefftsports