Glendale girls’ water polo tops Burbank to stay perfect in league

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Glendale’s Amanda Briones reaches on defense with Burbank’s Patil Minassian’s hand on her shoulder holding her back in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Glendale’s Erika Aivazi leans back looking for a teammate to pass to with Glendale’s Jamie Fritz defending in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Glendale’s Emma Mueller passes inside with Burbank’s Sune Ahgakian approaching on defense in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Glendale’s goalie Linet Voskanyan reaches to keep the ball out of the goal after a shot by Burbank in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Glendale’s Amanda Briones, with her mouth open as she takes a delicate, soft, looping shot over the Burbank goalie to score in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Burbank’s Clare Griffin rises out of the water to get big in the goal as Glendale’s Elen Muradyan lines up a shot in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Burbank’s Sune Ahgakian shoots and scores against Glendale in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Burbank’s Patil Minassian shoots and scores against Glendale in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Burbank’s Lexi Lyneis shoots against Glendale in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Burbank’s Sune Ahgakian defends against Glendale’s Elen Muradyan from passing in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Burbank’s Patil Minassian looks inside to make a pass against Glendale in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Glendale’s Amanda Briones takes a shot against Burbank in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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In a play where the ball just landed in front of her, Glendale’s Anna Ter-Mkrtchyan picks up the ball to shoot and score against Burbank in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Burbank’s Michelle Morlock shoots against Glendale in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

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Glendale’s Mondana Nassirpour gets ahead of the Burbank defense to score in a Pacific League girls’ water polo match at Burbank High School on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

By Charles Rich

Jan. 17, 2017 9:36 PM PT

Glendale —

Through its first three Pacific League matches, the Glendale High girls’ water polo team hasn’t had any difficulty scoring goals.

On Tuesday, Glendale received six goals from Mondana Nassirpour and three each from Amanda Briones and Anna Ter-Mkrtchyan to notch a 14-10 league win against Burbank on Tuesday at Burbank High.

“It’s really exciting to see what we can do on offense,” said Briones, a sophomore utility who had three first-half goals. “We have a lot of fast swimmers and it helps coming off a counterattack.

“It was a game where we were up and they came back. It was exciting and nerve-wracking at moments.”

Glendale (3-0 in league), which has scored 14 goals in each of its three league matches, had a 9-6 advantage midway through the third quarter before Burbank (3-11, 1-2) tied the match with three straight scores. But then the Nitros’ offense caught fire again, reeling off five consecutive goals to put the match away.

“It came down to the fourth quarter,” said Glendale Coach Casey Sripramong said. “It came down to them wanting it more and they had to fight for it.

“When they are on, they are on. You got to have that vision for the ball and be able to figure out the next step. We had people like Amanda step up when we needed her to.”

Nassirpour, who had six goals against crosstown rival Hoover on Thursday, scored with 3:30 remaining in the third quarter to put Glendale ahead, 9-6.

Burbank then scored three unanswered goals to make it 9-9 with Sune Aghakian scoring the game-tying goal with 23 seconds to go in the third period.

Nassirpour scored to give the Nitros a 10-9 lead with 5:22 remaining after missing on a five-meter shot a few seconds earlier.

Ter-Mkrtchyan then scored two straight goals to give Glendale a 12-9 lead. Nassirpour scored two goals less than a minute later in the quarter to make it 14-9.

“I thought we played well through the first three quarters and they met my expectations,” Burbank Coach Allyson Young said. “We made a few mistakes in the fourth quarter and it got away from us.”

Burbank held a 3-2 lead after the first quarter.

Glendale got a goal from Briones to make it 5-3 with 2:36 to go in the second quarter. Glendale owned a 6-4 halftime advantage.

Glendale also got one goal each from Arpa Shahbazian and Erika Aivazi.

Burbank got a team-high five goals from Aghakian, two from Patil Minassian and one each from Michelle Morlock, Lexi Lyneis and Tara Goodwin.

“ These are things that can be fixed and we’ll focus on that,” Young said. “I’ll look for them to keep improving on defense and stopping counterattacks.”