“Glendale’s a tough team this year, they’re going to fight for league,” said first-year Burroughs Coach Carlos Ponce, who believes his team’s loss shows what it needs to do to improve. “When you’re having a rebuilding year, this is the kind of licking you like to take.”
The senior-heavy Nitros (4-3) sprinted out to a 3-0 lead, putting the inexperienced Indians (7-8) into catch-up mode in a match they were never truly in.
“They’ve got some good kids, they just need another year as a team,” said third-year Glendale Coach Robert Zirovich of Burroughs. “This is the third year [the Nitros] are building on.”
The Nitros built on a 4-1 first-quarter lead with a goal-scoring bonanza in the second quarter, as they outscored Burroughs, 9-4.
Glendale’s Vahe Karimian scored the second period’s first two goals and finished with four for the match.
“We just came out with our best basically,” Karimian said. “It was good to start off [league] like this.”
Vaspur Ovasapyan had a match-high seven goals, including three straight to open the fourth period that gave Glendale an overwhelming 23-8 advantage.
“The tank came through for us,” said Zirovich of Ovasapyan.
In all, eight Nitros chipped in with the scoring. Arman Galstyan notched six goals, Simon Grigorian had four, both Vinney Agemian and Davo Gharagozian had a pair and Kyle Ferguson and Hakop Alexaryan also scored goals.
Burroughs wasn’t able to keep up with the Nitros attack, particularly in transition.
“Their reaction time is one of their fortes,” Ponce said. “Our reaction time was really bad.”
Robbie Giddons, the Indians’ only senior starter, had a team-best four goals.
“He’s our one guy that keeps us going,” said Ponce, who also got three goals from Nick Fiok and Jon Elliott and one from Chris Hamilton.
While the Nitros might very be headed the opposite direction of the Indians, they’re quite aware more progress must be made.
