Burbank High girls’ water polo battles back to defeat Hoover

BURBANK — The Burbank High girls’ water polo team opened Pacific League play Wednesday against Hoover with a number of starters out of action.

“Because they didn’t show up to practice I benched them for the game,” Burbank Coach Allyson Young said. “They have to learn.”

With the starters sitting out, the Tornadoes took full advantage early, jumping out to a three-goal lead after one quarter.

Undaunted, Burbank battled back and stepped up its game on the defensive end. The Bulldogs continued the pressure and were able to come back to notch an 8-6 league victory at Burbank.

PHOTOS: Bench weathers the storm for Burbank High girls’ water polo in 8-6 win over Hoover

Hoover (2-6) jumped put to a 3-0 lead early on and enjoyed a 4-1 advantage after the first quarter.

“I think in that first quarter some of the girls were thinking ‘Oh, these aren’t the girls that we normally start out with,’” Young said. “But they do all practice together, so it shouldn’t be all that different.

“But we didn’t start off very well in that first quarter and I think it took them a little while to get into it.”

The Tornadoes allowed Burbank (5-5) just three shots in the first quarter. The Bulldogs also had trouble taking care of the ball, which helped lead to 10 turnovers in the first two quarters.

Hoover received early goals from Naeiri Didarlou, Lalageh Noubarentz and Sona Aghazarian to jump to a 3-0 lead with 3:32 left in the first. Burbank finally got on the board when Gaby Aghakian scored with 2:08 remaining. Didarlou converted a five-meter penalty shot and Hoover went into the first break leading, 4-1.

After the first quarter, however, the Tornadoes began to falter on offense and the Burbank defense stiffened, resulting in no goals for Hoover in second and third quarters.

“We turned the ball over too many times and we were not making the passes, not difficult passes, to people who are open,” Hoover Coach Kevin Witt said. “When you do that it gives the other team confidence that they can play with us and come back, and that’s what they did.

“We just didn’t have enough in the end.”

Burbank’s Stella Aghakian (three goals) tallied the lone goal of the second quarter, making good on a five-meter shot with 53 seconds remaining. But the hosts still trailed, 4-2, at the half.

The Bulldogs took the lead in the third with 51 seconds left on a tally from Stella Aghakian and took a 5-4 advantage into the fourth quarter.

Burbank increased its lead to 7-4 at the 4:12 mark of the fourth quarter before the Tornadoes showed some fight. Noubarentz and Diana Magdesian scored consecutive goals to cut the deficit to 7-6 with 1:50 left.

Magdesian stole the ball with 1:26 left and drove deep into Burbank territory as Hoover looked to tie the score. However, she was called for pushing off and the ball was turned over. Stella Aghakian then scored an insurance goal with 32 seconds remaining.

A Tornadoes turnover gave the ball back to Burbank, which ran out the clock.

“We did OK, considering most of our players were from our bench,” said Gaby Aghakian, who had three goals and five steals. “We knew this was our first league game and we just had to battle hard and want to win it.

“When we were down we knew that we could fight back and win; it wasn’t that much of a lead.”

Burbank goalkeeper Kristine Khachikian had seven saves and six steals.