Advertisement

Burroughs water polo surges back to defeat Glendale in overtime thriller

Burroughs’ Gwen Turla gets a shot off with pressure from Glendale’s Anna Ter-Mkrtchyan during Tuesday’s match.
(Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)
Share

GLENDALE — It was a spirited, albeit, unlikely comeback.

The Burroughs High girls’ water polo looked to be going down to defeat after trailing Glendale by six goals with just more than six and a half minutes remaining Tuesday afternoon.

But the Indians staged a torrid comeback. With time running out, Burroughs scored to send the Pacific League match into overtime. After the squads traded goals in the two overtime halves, the match would be decided in sudden-death overtime.

After one scoreless sudden-death period, Amy Berberyan scored in next stanza to lift Burroughs to a 14-13 win at Glendale.

“For them to be able to come back like this is just amazing,” Burroughs coach Jacob Cook said. “Honestly, this was unbelievable. They just rallied. And the effort they put in at the end was just something. … I am just so proud of them.”

In the second sudden-death period, Burroughs’ Aleah Orozco won the sprint. The Indians were working the ball around when Glendale was called for a foul and had an exclusion with 2:43 remaining. With a man-advantage, Indian Bianca Sanchez found Berberyan open on the left side and the junior scored the golden goal at the 2:40 mark.

“Our coach makes us do those kinds of drills over and over and on that last goal it kind of kicked in,” said Berberyan, who had two goals. “I knew that I had to take that shot because I would probably get reprimanded if I didn’t just go for it. Our coach is always telling us to be aggressive, so I just took it. Bianca gave me a great pass so I thought it was now or never.”

Burroughs (7-4, 3-1 in league) received three goals each from Orozco and Sanchez, while Gwen Turla and Madeline Lingad contributed two apiece.

Glendale (10-7, 2-2) was in control for much of regulation. The Nitros jumped out to a 4-2 lead after one quarter, increased the advantage to 8-3 at the half and ended the third quarter in front 10-5.

A goal by Emma Mueller with 6:33 left in the fourth quarter gave Glendale a six-goal cushion, 11-5.

But the Indians began to eat away at the lead. Turla rose up over a defender and fired a shot for a goal with six seconds left to tie the score at 12. Glendale’s Liliya Tur-Barsegyan (three goals) had a final shot with two seconds remaining, but Burroughs goalkeeper Emmanuela Nathan was just able to tip it away, sending the contest into overtime.

“It was a good game and they were a good opponent,” Glendale coach Casey Sripramong said. “It was a really tough game and I couldn’t ask anything more from my team. We will just have to continue fighting.”

In the first overtime, Lingad scored with 1:39 remaining to give the Indians a 13-12 lead. The Nitros tied the score at 13 in the second extra period with a goal from Mueller (two goals) with 35 seconds left.

Mondana Nassirpour, Aleh Shahbazian and Anna Ter-Mkrtchyan added two goals each for Glendale.

jeffrey.tully@latimes.com

Twitter: @jefftsports

Advertisement