Burroughs High football rushes past Santa Fe

DOWNEY — After a bump in the road to begin the season, the Burroughs High football team appears to be turning things around at the right time.

It hasn’t been easy for the Indians, who grieved last week following the death of former player Jake Gnasso, but the Indians have been able to turn the corner with the start of Pacific League on deck.

Burroughs wrapped up the nonleague portion of its schedule Friday night, as Erick Hernandez and Aidan Anding each scored a pair of touchdowns and Chance Bell rushed for 114 yards to power the visiting Indians to a 33-21 win against Santa Fe at Downey High.

“We definitely feel a lot better about our team after these last two games,” said Burroughs Coach Keith Knoop, whose team opened with a defeat against Calabasas before posting wins against Rosemead and Santa Fe. “We’re starting to get guys back healthy and it makes us a deeper team and we then have more options.

“We are starting to jell. We still need to clean some things up, like doing a better job with tackling.”

Hernandez scored two first-half touchdowns before Anding scored on a pair of four-yard runs in the fourth quarter to turn back the Chiefs (1-3).

As a bonus, the Indians forced a couple of turnovers that were turned into 10 points and they posted a safety.

“Our defense came through in some situations,” Knoop said.

Sante Fe scored on the first possession of the game when Gabriel Cisneros scored on a 15-yard run with 8:35 left in the first quarter. The Chiefs appeared to be on the verge of extending their lead on their next possession, but Branden Garcia recovered a fumble at Burroughs’ 27-yard line. The Indians capitalized on the mishap, as Hernandez scored on a four-yard run to knot it at 7 with 2:51 to go in the opening quarter.

Burroughs’ Nick Tipton recovered a fumble at the Santa Fe 37-yard line early in the second quarter, leading to a 45-yard field goal by Andrea Aguilar with 6:51 left in the first half.

Hernandez made it 17-7 when he grabbed a 33-yard touchdown pass from Andy Amela (18 of 27 for 167 yards) with 4:46 to play in the second quarter.

“We started to pick it up on offense there in the second quarter,” said Hernandez, who caught five passes for 77 yards. “We know we can score a lot of points and we were able to get some big plays from our defense.”

The Chiefs closed to within 17-14 on a four-yard run by Joshua Archuleta with 37 seconds left.

Burroughs picked up a safety when an errant snap went over the head of quarterback Eli Lesdesma, who recovered the ball in the end zone. The safety gave the Indians a 19-14 lead with 3:15 to go in the third quarter.

Anding gave the Indians some breathing room in the fourth quarter. His first touchdown gave the Indians a 26-14 advantage with 11:54 to play. The Chiefs then made it 26-21 on a 46-yard touchdown pass from Ledesma to Cisneros with 10:39 to go.

Anding wrapped up the scoring with 5:17 to play.

“Our offensive line did a good job blocking throughout the game,” Anding said.

Many of the Indians’ players wore “JG” stickers on the back of their helmets. Gnasso was one of three 2013 Burroughs graduates who were killed in a car accident Sept. 12 in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Burroughs will meet host Crescenta Valley (3-0) in a league opener at 7 p.m. Friday at Glendale High’s Moyse Field.