Robles lifts Burroughs girls’ water polo past Burbank in rivalry showdown
- Share via
BURBANK — The Burroughs High girls’ water polo team made a short trip and paid a visit to crosstown rival Burbank in a Pacific League battle Wednesday, where defense played a big role in a scoreless stalemate in the opening quarter.
But once the Indians got on the board with a five-meter goal from sophomore Clarissa Robles, the Bulldogs were unable to regroup.
Robles scored five goals to help Burroughs earn a 9-2 victory over Burbank, as the Indians ended a two-game league skid.
“We just remembered what we were practicing the past week,” Robles said. “We were doing some new drills and running some new plays and I think we executed them really well this game. With our losses to Crescenta Valley and Pasadena, we just wanted to get our rhythm back in. We needed this win.”
The Indians and Bulldogs each had a handful of opportunities to open the scoring in the first quarter, but strong goalkeeping efforts prevented either team from scoring.
Burroughs (16-6, 4-2 in league) attempted four shots to Burbank’s six, while Bulldogs goalkeeper Jenny Stepanyan and her Indians counterpart Ema Nathan each recorded three saves in the quarter.
“We just needed to make some adjustments and get our bearings,” Burroughs coach Jacob Cook said. “The wind was kind of throwing them off it seemed like in the first quarter. It usually takes us the first quarter to figure out the defense and figure out what we’re doing. Once we got it down, they started putting it away.”
Nathan, a senior, finished with 11 saves for the Indians, while Stepanyan tallied 10 saves.
After the scoreless first quarter, the Indians took a 1-0 lead behind a five-meter goal from Robles at 5:33 in the second.
A long-distance strike from Bulldogs sophomore Julie Kim tied it at 1 nearly a minute later, before the Indians took a 2-1 lead on a goal from Emily Callahan.
Robles scored with 49 seconds left in the second quarter, as Burroughs — ranked No. 5 in CIF Southern Section Division V — took a 3-1 lead at halftime.
“Defensively, we were very in sync and everyone was on the same page,” said first-year Burbank coach Melani Aghazarian, a Glendale High graduate. “We all knew what was happening. Their defense was on, too.
“The first two quarters was a swim meet basically. Where it kind of got worse for us was when they realized our team looked for Sera [Shabazian] and they dropped. And the five-meters killed us.”
Indians freshman Nancy Baylor scored the first goal of the second half for a 4-1 lead at 4:20 in the third.
Robles established a four-goal cushion with a strike from distance at 1:53 in the third and added another score on a five-meter goal with 21 seconds remaining as the Indians led, 6-1, at the end of the period.
Kim opened the fourth quarter with a goal as Burbank (10-8, 2-4) pulled to within 6-2 before Indians junior Angelina Lee restored Burroughs’ five-goal lead at the 6:06 mark.
Another five-meter goal from Robles extended the Indians’ lead to 8-2 and Baylor’s second goal with 2:21 left put Burroughs up by seven.
