The 2023 Chargers football season kicked off Friday night with a rematch against Burbank High School from last year. 

Last year, the Chargers defeated the Burbank Bulldogs off a last-second field goal by  then senior Greg Tripathi. This year is the first year where Coach AJ Pateras has been the coach for all of the years that the players have been on varsity. This is also the second year of Ryan Marsh (12) as the quarterback. Last year he had over 1000 yards and had 5 touchdowns to 6 interceptions with a 51.4% completion rate. Over the offseason, he has bulked up and gained some good experience.

With the Charger’s opening drive, they started with a 4-yard loss and eventually got to a 4th and 16, where they decided to punt. Punter Joel Felix (11) got a high snap and with his quickness, he was able to evade defenders while running with the ball and eventually punting it to the 50-yard line. On Burbank’s opening drive, they were led to a 4th and 6 on the Charger’s 19-yard line, their pass attempt was thrown a little too high for the receiver and the Chargers got the ball back at the 19-yard line.

It wouldn’t be until there were 4 minutes left in the first before the Chargers could get a score, as Marsh threw a 48-yard touchdown pass to Ivan Valez (12) on a 10-yard out route. 

With 2 minutes remaining in the first quarter, quarterback Daniel Zacariaz of Burbank threw a 55-yard touchdown to receiver Sean Garrett, who would end up having 143 yards on the game. 

The Chargers would score again with 10:42 remaining in the second quarter, as Marsh threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to his new receiver, Micah Barnhart (10), on a bubble screen pass on a motion. 

With 4:20 remaining in the 2nd, the Chargers decided to switch it up on a 4th and 4, when they would attempt a fake punt which would put the Chargers even more down the field which eventually led to another Charger touchdown, this time a rushing one by Matt Welsh (12). 

Within the final 2 minutes of the half, Burbank stormed down the field and got another touchdown on the board, but missed the PAT making the score going into halftime 21-13.

The Chargers eventually jumped up to a 2-score lead in the second half off of a touchdown to Daniel Johnston (12) off of a scramble pass by Marsh on a 4th and 7. This would be the final score of regulation for the Chargers, but this didn’t mean there weren’t any brightspots before the end of regulation. 

Kaleb Williams (11) put his stamp on this game as he had multiple big plays throughout the fourth, even if it didn’t lead to any points. However, the Chargers did come very close to scoring right after the 2-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

It was a crucial 4th and 7, in Burbank territory on the 10-yard line. All the Chargers needed to do was sink a field goal and they could potentially win the game. Senior Diego Lopez lined up for the kick… and it was blocked by the Bulldogs. The Chargers were able to stop any push the Bulldogs gave at the end, so the Chargers and the Bulldogs game would continue in sudden-death overtime. 

The Chargers won the coin toss, and on the first play of overtime, they got a 21-yard run by Kaleb Williams. Despite this, they were not able to capitalize on this and they failed to convert on fourth down off of a deflected pass. 

Lucky for the Chargers, they were able to get a fumble recovery on first and goal, because if they didn’t, the game would have most likely been over as the Bulldogs only needed 5 yards in 4 plays. 

Since the game was still tied, they went into the second overtime, and this time the Bulldogs started off with the ball. With the overtime, they capitalized on the opportunity, scoring a touchdown. It was the Charger’s turn again, and they had their own chance to either lose, tie, or win the game on this drive.

On the first play, running back Danny Vidaure (11) got a 9-yard run. The next play Vidaure got the ball again, this time for another 9 yard run. On the 3rd play Vidaure got tackled at the 5. Finally on the 4th play, Vidaure broke 3 tackles and juked a defender for the touchdown, making the score 34-35, with a chance to either tie the game or win it by going for 2.

The Charger’s elected to go for 2 so they can win the game. The play started, Vidaure motioned to the right side, and Matt Welsh was handed the ball from Marsh, and he ran up the right side and he scored. With that, the Chargers won the game 36-35 and in doing so also won their season and home opener. 

DP has not released many stats for the game but Ryan Marsh did have a good performance with 151 yards and 3 touchdowns on 14 of 24 passing attempts. Overall, a good start to the season for him.

Other things to note from the game are the plays by running backs Kaleb Williams and Danny Vidaure who both had huge plays in overtime and the fourth quarter, another note, in his varsity debut, Micah Barnhart had a great game with multiple receptions and a long touchdown run.