Crescenta Valley boys’ soccer routs rival Arcadia in finale
LA CRESCENTA — Entering Thursday’s Pacific League finale, the Crescenta Valley High boys’ soccer team still had an opportunity to share the league championship.
However, the Falcons would need to do it the hard way via picking up a home win against Arcadia and needing winless Burbank to top Burroughs.
Crescenta Valley took care of its own business, but didn’t receive the help it needed.
Nonetheless, Crescenta Valley still turned in a stellar performance, getting a first-half hat trick from Henry Barkhordarian to register an 8-2 victory.
Burroughs (11-2-1 for 34 points) wrapped up the league title following a 4-1 win at Burbank. Burroughs had already clinched a share of league following a 1-1 tie against Crescenta Valley (18-3-4, 9-1-4 for 31 points) on Tuesday, reducing Crescenta Valley’s odds to gain a piece of the title.
“We had to worry about ourselves and what we could do today,” Crescenta Valley Coach Grant Clark. “We had some chances and we couldn’t finish against Burroughs, but we were able to finish today and we had a lot of people contribute.
“So, now we head to the playoffs and we’ll see what we can do.”
On a bright note, Crescenta Valley had its biggest offensive output in a league match this season.
“We knew we needed to come out strong and do anything we could to give ourselves a chance at maybe sharing league,” Barkhordarian said. “Regardless of what happened in the Burroughs game, we were ready to come out and stay focused.
“I liked the way we were able to bounce back and we end the regular season on a positive and head into the playoffs ready to go.”
Barkhordarian gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead in the second minute. He lined a shot off the inside of the right post off an assist from Anthony Dehnoushi.
Barkhordarian extended the lead to 2-0 when he took a pass from Jonathan Han and again lined a shot off the inside of the right post in the fifth minute.
Arcadia (6-10-6, 2-7-4 for 10 points) cut the lead to 2-1 on a goal by Jason Chuang in the 33rd minute.
Barkhordarian completed the hat trick on a penalty shot with about two minutes left in the first half.
Dallas Kaauwai extended Crescenta Valley’s lead to 4-1 off an assist from Ayden Blackwood in the 43rd minute.
A penalty shot by Alex Atanackovic made it 5-1 in the 59th minute.
The Falcons then got a goal from Ryan Sanfilippo in the 65th minute to pad the lead to 6-1.
Sanfilippo then scored about a minute later to make it 7-1.
Crescenta Valley’s Joseph Ma made it 8-1 in the 73rd minute before Arcadia’s Alexander Williams closed out the scoring with five minutes left.
The CIF Southern Section playoff pairings will be unveiled Monday. The Falcons are in Division III.
