Indian tie ‘feels like a loss’
TullyBOYS’ SOCCER: Burroughs offense stalls and coach is not happy with scoreless Foothill League result against Valencia.LUTHER BURBANK MIDDLE SCHOOL -- The Burroughs High boys’ soccer team came into Foothill League play with its best nonleague showing in 13 years.
However, the Indians didn’t get off to a good league start when they dropped a one-goal result to Saugus on Friday.
Entering Tuesday’s league contest against Valencia -- a team with just one win -- Burroughs Coach Mike Kodama said his squad would be in a bad situation if it were to lose to the Vikings.
Although the Indians weren’t defeated by Valencia in a match at Luther Burbank Middle School, Kodama wasn’t happy with his team’s 0-0 tie.
“This feels like a loss to us,” Kodama said. “To be winless in our first two league games is not good.
“I am very disappointed with the result and I’m not happy with the play of some of our guys [Tuesday].”
Burroughs (7-3-3, 0-1-1 in league) dominated the match, setting the tempo and continuing to keep the ball in Valencia territory. However, for all of their efforts, the Indians couldn’t muster a goal.
“I think we did pretty well in almost every other aspect of our game expect for being able to finish,” Kodama. “We had our opportunities, we just couldn’t get any goals.
“I’m happy with the play of our midfield, our defense and our [goalkeeper]. The only thing we had a problem with was with the play of our forwards. We just didn’t play well in the box, and our forwards weren’t feisty enough on offense.”
Going winless in its first two league contests doesn’t bode well for Burroughs’ chances of winning its first league championship since 1997. But despite the early struggles, Kodama isn’t ready to throw in the towel on winning a league title.
“We just have to regroup and get ready for the next game,” Kodama said. “We have to get our forwards to play better if we want to compete.”
If the tie seemed like a loss to Burroughs, the Vikings (1-8-3, 0-1-1) were pleased to get a point in league play.
Vikings Coach Tony Scalercio -- who took over the program after leading the girls’ team for seven years -- said this season has been a growing process for his squad.
The coach said he saw a lot of good things in the tie, and not allowing any late goals was a step in the right direction
“This is like a win for us,” said Scalercio, who led the Valencia girls’ team to the CIF Southern Section Division II championship game in 2004 and the program’s only league title in 2001. “Burroughs is a good team, but we played really good defense against them.
“We are going to try and build on this result [Tuesday]. We got our first win in almost two seasons, and we have been taking little steps in trying to build up the program. I hope this helps.”
Valencia received a fine match from goalkeeper Greg Jaffy, who made 11 saves. Jaffe had a some nice stops in the first half that kept Burroughs off the board.
The Indians had their chances to score in the second half in the 74th minute on a hard shot by Rudy Nava. However, the junior defender missed wide with the shot, and missed again on an effort one minute later.
Burroughs also had a barrage of shots in the final five minutes that didn’t yield a goal.