Burroughs boys’ soccer misses chance in loss to Saugus
SAUGUS — With final exams coming up, the Burroughs High boys’ soccer team had a lengthy gap in its schedule between Pacific League matches.
The Indians played Tuesday against Hoover and won’t have another league contest until Dec. 22 against Arcadia.
To fill the gap, Burroughs coach Mike Kodama scheduled a nonleague match Friday against Saugus, which advanced to the CIF Southern Division V championship last season.
After a scoreless first half, the Indians missed a chance to take the lead on a penalty kick in the second half. The Centurions scored two goals in the second half to defeat the visiting Indians, 2-0.
“We wanted to play Saugus because they always have a good program and they went to a CIF final last season,” said Kodama, whose team won a Pacific League title and advanced to the Division III quarterfinals during the 2016-17 season. “We thought that this would be a good test for us against a good team.”
The loss dropped the Indians to 4-3-1, as the team is 0-2-1 in its last three contests.
The Indians had difficulty creating scoring opportunities against Saugus (3-1-2). The first half was particularity challenging for Burroughs, which manufactured precious few offensive chances.
“As a group, I think we just weren’t there and we weren’t all awake,” Burroughs senior Olin Bernal Villalpando said. “We should have been attacking and we didn’t do that. Against this team, we should have been on our ‘A’ game.
“They caught us on a few plays and they caught us asleep and they took advantage of that.”
Saugus’ Dylan Sullivan appeared to score first in the 15th minute, but an offsides call nullified the goal.
Burroughs’ best chance in the opening half came in the 25th minute when sophomore David Gerlach took a shot from the left side, but the attempt was deflected wide left.
After a scoreless first half, the Indians had a golden opportunity in the 52nd minute when freshman Manny Gonzalez was dragged down and Burroughs was awarded a penalty kick. Junior Esteban Alcantar took the shot and tried to beat Saugus goalkeeper Matt Sayers low and to his right. But the keeper guessed correctly, dove and knocked the ball away. The rebound was kicked out by Burroughs.
“A penalty kick is just a psychical game for me,” said Sayers, a senior. “I don’t know if you heard, but when he was setting up, I was all getting in his head and telling him he was scared. I was just messing around with him.
“But when I was walking back to the goal, I just knew what side he was going to pick. Sometimes I can just tell.”
The Centurions broke the deadlock in the 62nd minute with a goal by Sullivan off of an assist from Jason Hindigian.
Saugus made it 2-0 with a goal by Jeremy Hindigian in the 78th minute.
Things got chippy in the second half when the teams combined for five yellow cards.
“A big part of this game is your composure and we needed to keep our composure better than we did,” Kodama said. “We made mistakes in the back today. We really have to clean up our back third because we are making way too many mistakes back there.”
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