Burbank Bulldogs season has come to a close in a playoff version of the battle of the Bulldogs 

On a chilly Friday night, the Highland Bulldogs overcame a 13-point deficit to defeat the Burbank Bulldogs 42-28 to advance to the semifinal round of the playoffs. Last week, Highland had an upset 21-17 victory over Cerritos while Burbank escaped with a 47-35 win over Monrovia in the opening round of the playoffs. 

The host Bulldogs scored first in the opening quarter of play as DeShawn LaPorte had a two-yard quarterback run for a touchdown to give Burbank a 6-0 lead. Laporte also had a five-yard quarterback touchdown run and found Daniel Zackariaz for a two-point conversion to put Burbank up 14-0. Highland got on the board on a goal-line touchdown run by Marcus Austin to close the gap with the host Bulldogs and trailed 14-7. Burbank responded with another touchdown with LaPorte finding Max Kelly on a 33-yard connection to make the score 20-7 to end the first quarter of play. 

The visiting Bulldogs closed the gap again with a goal-line touchdown run by Roderick Erwin to put Highland within seven. The host Bulldogs then pulled away with another score when LaPorte found Tyler Hudson with a 27-yard touchdown strike and then found Thomas Adzhemyan for the two-point conversion to put Burbank up 28-14. Jayden Williams found the end zone with a 16-yard run to close the gap on Burbank and helped Highland head into the halftime break with a 28-21 advantage. 

Justin Wyatt Jr took it to the house with a 17-yard quarterback-keeper to tie the score at 28 to start the third quarter for Highland. Following the host Bulldogs going three-and-out, Roderick Erwin gave the visiting Bulldogs a 36-28 lead with a 42-yard touchdown run and then converted a two-point attempt. Highland led by eight to end the third quarter. Wyatt Jr put an exclamation point on the game with a red zone touchdown quarterback-keeper to give the host Bulldogs a 42-28 lead in the final quarter of play. 

“We didn’t have a lot of breaks in this game, we had calls that didn’t go our way and never found a way to overcome them,” said Bulldogs coach Hector Valencia. Valencia admitted that he had fun in his welcome-back tour as the Burbank Bulldogs Football Head Coach and that the varsity team put them in a great position to win games but he is also optimistic about the future of the program. 

Highland will host Quartz Hill next Friday, November 22nd at 7:00 p.m. with a trip to the CIF Southern Section Division Nine championship game on the line, while Burbank’s season has come to an end.