Glendale girls’ soccer stuns Burbank to open league
GLENDALE — Since Burbank High and Burroughs joined the Pacific League ranks in 2006, the girls’ soccer standings have regularly been dominated by Arcadia, Crescenta Valley and the Media City tandem taking up the top four spots.
Evidence to that is the Nitros’ girls’ team never having defeated the Bulldogs, a streak of 20 straight losses heading into Tuesday’s opener. But that all changed as an early start to the league campaign came with a stunning, if not historic, result.
Glendale dominated play throughout the contest, scoring goals in both halves, to earn a 2-0 victory against Burbank at home, breaking a 20-game league losing streak against Burbank.
“We wanted to get a win against a good team, a team we usually haven’t beaten in the past,” Glendale Coach Victor Aquino said. “I’ve been here at Glendale for eight years and we’ve never gotten a win against Burbank. This is the kind of win we were looking for.
“We knew the league season was going to start early this year, so I just scheduled games last week so we could get the experience. It didn’t matter if we won or lost, I just wanted to get the girls used to the system so we could be ready for league.”
The Nitros (3-1) entered the game with three of their starters injured. The Bulldogs had to play without All-CIF Southern Section and All-Area standout Kira Bochard, who has had to sit out the first two weeks due to club.
The Bulldogs (0-3) sputtered on offense without Bochard in the lineup. The 2015-16 Burbank Leader Girls’ Athlete of the Year, Bochard scored 23 goals and had 11 assists last season in helping Burbank to the playoffs. The senior forward will miss one more league match, Friday against Pasadena, before becoming eligible.
“We just miss so much when we don’t have Kira in the lineup,” Burbank Coach Erik Montoya said. “She is such a big part of our offense and she makes things happen when she’s on the field.
“But really, we didn’t play that well at all today. This is not the way you want to start league. But Glendale deserved the win, they outplayed us and they were the better team today.”
Both teams had a few scoring chances early in the contest, but as the clock ticked past the 30-minute mark, the match was scoreless. Glendale was able to create more chances and continually beat Burbank to the ball in the early going.
The deadlock was broken in the 34th minute when Ani Krikorian scored to give the Nitros a 1-0 advantage. Glendale carried the ball in close to the Bulldogs goal and it was kicked out to Krikorian, who, positioned to the left of the goalmouth, angled a shot that went into the right corner for the goal.
Glendale received a good effort from goalkeeper Yulissa Macius, who made seven saves and helped the Nitros maintain a 1-0 at halftime.
“She’s not even a goalkeeper,” Aquino said. “But we needed her and she stepped up for us.”
Burbank’s Nicole Winter started in goal for Burbank, but left after the first half because of a school choir obligation.
The Nitros made it 2-0 with a goal by Rita Grigorian in the 52nd minute. Glendale pushed the ball into the Bulldogs’ half and Burbank wasn’t able to clear it out. Keeper Jaime Giammichelle came off her line to cut down the angle and Grigorian chipped a shot high and into the goal.
“This year, we have a good team, so we were really pushing hard for this one,” Grigorian said. “I think when we got that first goal we really started pushing up more and started playing a lot better.”
The Bulldogs had some scoring chances in the second half, including an open look at the goal in the 47th minute by Ryan Verhoeven that was covered up by Macius and a header by Isabel Partida in the 38th minute that banked off the crossbar.
