Joel Brinton has guided the Bears to 13 League Championships 

The John Burroughs Bears remained perfect in Pacific League play following a sweeping victory over crosstown rival Burbank Bulldogs (25-21, 25-17, 25-21). The victory clinches an outright Pacific League Title following a three-set win over Glendale back on Tuesday, which guaranteed the Bears at least a share of the league title. Joel Brinton has guided the Bears to 13 Pacific League titles during his long tenure as the boys volleyball program director at Burroughs. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, came off a tough four-set defeat to the Arcadia Apaches on Tuesday as well. 

Most recently, Brinton previously guided the Bears to a 2022 League title championship. 

The Bulldogs began the opening set by going on a 5-1 scoring run as Brandon Chong and Jordan Ribas helped spark the fast start for Burbank. Noah Duffield and Ryder Tafoya then closed the gap with kills to get the game even at six apiece. Both teams continued to battle it out throughout the opening frame. Duffield, however, ended the first set with a kill to give the Bears a 25-21 victory in set one. 

Both the Bears and Bulldogs began set two with another neck-and-neck battle, with Benji Ly, Sky Alston, Jun Angel, Kaiden Shrode, Tyler Tran, and Michael Becker all helping with the point tradeoffs. Duffield recorded three straight points for Burroughs with consecutive kills to get the Bears’ lead up to 8-5, and then he recorded a block to increase the Burroughs lead to four. Burroughs took control throughout the second set as Marco Santiago Dorn secured a set point block to end set two, which pulled Burroughs one win away from a Pacific League title. 

Both teams entered the third set with different questions. Burroughs was looking to wrap up the Pacific League title, and Burbank was looking to force another fourth set. Riley Brinton and Tafoya started the Bears’ 5-1 scoring run to open set three. The Bears played hungry throughout the third set, but the Bulldogs never gave an inch in the set as they cut the Burroughs lead to three at one point before surrendering two free points to the Bears to set up a match point win. The players on the Burbank Bulldogs were then called for illegal movement on the court to end the game, which sealed the Bears’ Pacific League Championship. 

“We knew after that first set that we would play better than we did; our practices recently have been intense, and I’ve been encouraging my guys to play hard to end the season,” said Joel Brinton. Brinton admitted that the team will have the same mindset and approach when asked about the regular season finale against Arcadia, with the team still looking to complete the perfect season. 

“We failed to create energy following a great start to the game, but I was proud of how the boys showed their efforts in the loss to Burroughs,” said Brandon Villaflor. Villaflor admitted that mental fatigue and a bit of frustration got to the boys when asked if the Bulldogs lacked team execution in the loss to Burroughs. 

Burroughs improves to a season best 28-6 overall and 9-0 in Pacific League play, and Burbank falls to 3-12 and 0-7 in Pacific League play. Both teams will return to action on Tuesday, April 22nd, to conclude the regular season as Burroughs will look to complete Pacific League perfection against the Arcadia Apaches on the road. Burbank will host Pasadena, which will be Jordan Ribas’s senior night celebration prior to the opening serve in the battle of the Bulldogs.