Burroughs football rallies past Burbank

Burbank — It was one of the most significant “Big Games” in years when Burroughs High’s football team and Burbank renewed their long standing cross-town rivalry clash Friday evening at Memorial Field.

Having already secured a share of the Pacific League championship, its first in four years, a week earlier, the Indians were looking to close out the league campaign undefeated and claim the undisputed title for their own.

PHOTOS: Burbank, Burroughs square off in ‘Big Game’

For the Bulldogs, a victory would give them a portion of the league crown.

The Bulldogs came out inspired and looked like the team to beat early on, jumping out to a 14-point lead in the first quarter. But the Indians stifled their foes for much of the rest of the game, scoring 40 straight points to secure a 47-21 victory.

Burroughs (9-1, 7-0 in league), ranked No. 5 in the CIF Southeast Division, claimed a share of their first title since 2011 with a win Oct. 30 against Crescenta Valley. Friday, the players savored the undisputed title all to themselves.

Burbank (6-4, 6-1), ranked No. 9 in the division, finishes tied with Crescenta Valley for second place in league, but the Bulldogs will go into the playoffs as the No. 2 team from the league after beating the Falcons head to head.

“It feels great to win the league championship,” Burroughs quarterback Steven Hubbell said. “We all worked really hard to achieve this and now to be able to win it is just unbelievable.”

Hubbell was a catalyst for the Burroughs offense. The senior completed 17 of 27 passes for 265 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions.

Indians receiver Cade Borland hauled in eight passes for 92 yards and one touchdown and Robert Awungani had three catches for 32 yards and two touchdowns. Nick Mercado and Erick Hernandez caught a touchdown apiece.

Burbank jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Guy Gibbs to Max Weisman (seven catches for 83 yards) and Forrest Fajardo. Gibbs completed 15 of 25 yards for 199 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

But after the initial Bulldogs offensive push, the Indians shut them down. Burroughs scored 19 straight points to go into halftime with a 19-14 ¿lead.

“They have a great defense and we just had to take what they were giving us in that early going,” Burroughs Coach Keith Knoop said. “They did a couple of different things and it just took us a little bit of time to kind of figure out what they were doing. But once we figured that out it was like taking candy from a baby.

“We know that running was going to be tough against their defense so we wanted to throw the ball a lot.”

On the ground, Burroughs received 164 yards in 20 carries and one touchdown from Chance Bell, who returned to action after being knocked out of the game against the Falcons.

“It was the tale of one quarter,” Burbank Coach Richard Broussard said. “You can’t just play one quarter of football and hope to win. Burroughs is a very good team and you have to play a complete game if you hope to beat them. We did some good things early on, but we just couldn’t maintain it.

“But hats off to them. …Burroughs played a great game and they deserve it.”

The teams will find out what the playoffs will bring when the pairings are released by the CIF on Sunday.

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Jeff Tully, jeff.tully@latimes.com

Twitter: @jefftsports