Second-quarter turnaround leads Glendale High boys’ water polo over Burbank

BURBANK — It took about a quarter for the Glendale High boys’ water polo team to find its way Thursday afternoon in Pacific League action versus host Burbank.

When the Nitros did, however, they opened up on offense, clamped down on defense and stifled the Bulldogs in a 17-9 victory.

The triumph was the first in league for Glendale (6-4, 1-1 in league) and came at the expense of Burbank (3-5, 0-2).

“The key for us is that we started to control the pace of the game,” Glendale Coach Narek Vardanian said. “At the beginning, both teams were playing slowly as they warmed up, but then we were able to speed it up, stop cherry-picking on defense and play together as a team.”

The contest appeared balanced early on as the Bulldogs took a 3-2 lead after one quarter.

Everything changed in the second period, as Glendale forced six turnovers, scored on two six-on-five chances and held Burbank without a goal for the quarter’s first five minutes to win the frame, 6-2, and take an 8-5 lead into the half.

Glendale junior tri-captain Nicholas Schmitt led all scorers with eight goals, four of them coming in the second quarter.

Schmitt rebounded in a blocked shot to start the quarter’s scoring with 6:09 left, which knotted the game at 3.

Schmitt scored again at 4:08 in the quarter to give Glendale the lead for good, 4-3, before closing the first half with a pair of scores to send the Nitros into the break with a three-goal advantage.

“We thought we could totally take this game, but we didn’t get inspired until that second quarter,” said Schmitt, who added three steals. “You have tough teams in league, so you have to win the games you’re supposed to win.”

In contrast to Glendale’s success, Burbank committed six of its 20 turnovers in the second quarter and finally broke a scoring drought of more than five minutes with a score from Peter Youssef, who was assisted by Brandon Wilson, with 1:38 left.

Burbank added another goal from Alex Airapetyan (three goals) off an assist from Andrew Senane (three goals) to close within, 6-5, with 53.25 seconds remaining before Schmitt converted two back-breaking goals.

Though the game was close at the half, that was in spite of miscommunication and bickering on the side of Burbank.

In the third quarter, Glendale forced eight turnovers and outscored Burbank, 4-1, behind a pair of goals from Schmitt and four assists from Hike Pashaian. On two separate occasions in the quarter, Burbank players yelled at each other after a Glendale goal, with one argument followed by a Bulldogs timeout.

“Honestly, when the team gets frustrated, they start yelling at each other,” Burbank Coach Allyson Young said. “That’s when everything starts falling apart and that’s exactly what happened. They got upset and started yelling at each other.

“I know the team and I know that once that happens, there’s no coming back from that.”

Glendale won the fourth quarter, 5-3, with perhaps the best shot coming on a seven-meter score from Vachik Gharibyan (three goals) that was taken from straight away and tucked into the corner of the frame for a goal.

One of the unsung heroes from Thursday was Glendale freshman goalie Ronald George, who finished with 12 saves.

“It helps me when we play hands-up defense and just press everywhere,” George said. “We can’t let them breathe. That’s how we won.”

Burbank goalie Misak Voskanyan finished with eight saves.