Glendale football finds positives in season-opening loss to Santa Fe

WHITTIER — Glendale junior Arman Papazyan knew what the scoreboard read but didn’t look.

He didn’t flinch as an inexperienced offensive line without a preseason game struggled to match the physicality of Santa Fe in the first quarter. Papazyan simply took the ball, reacted to the tunnel he saw through his helmet and accelerated.

Glendale lost 38-8 on the road to Santa Fe but Papazyan left his signature fully imprinted during the Week 00 matchup.

Papazyan rushed for 223 yards on 30 carries and scored his team’s lone touchdown on an 54-yard run with 10:23 in the third quarter.

“It’s just a kickstart,” Papazyan said. “It’s just a kickstart and we gotta do what we gotta do.”

Glendale (0-1) struggled containing Santa Fe junior wide receiver Jeremiah Norman and senior quarterback Aiden Garate.

Garate threw three touchdown passes to Norman of 47, 44 and 8 yards to lead Santa Fe (1-0).

While Glendale defensively in the first half, there was resilience displayed and adjustments were made by coach Manuel Lemus.

Lemus moved players to different positions on defense including junior Margo Stoychev who went from weak side safety to outside linebacker.

The adjustment proved beneficial to Stoychev. Stoychev made seven tackles and was credited with scoring a safety with 36.7 seconds in regulation after tackling Santa Fe sophomore running back Aiden Nunez.

“I just told (Stoychev) he was going to play linebacker and just go,” Lemus said. “I told him just go. Don’t think. I have to use his skillset and he has a big skillset. He’s long, strong and fast. We saw him blocking at wide receiver and he’s got that dog in him.”

All eyes were on Papazyan who rushed for over 1,000 yards and scored 12 touchdowns rushing. He’s now 40 pounds heavier and trying to become a late recruited class of 2028 player.

He managed to carry the ball 30 times and didn’t miss an offensive series until the final drive with Santa Fe’s holding victory at hand. Lemus commended Papazyan while making observations he saw calling his team’s offense from the press box in the first half.

“There were some runs he missed on from watching it upstairs, a couple of plays he missed on and he’ll see it watching it on film,” Lemus said. “He’s going to put his foot on the ground and go. It was hesitation. It was our first game. We really don’t hit as much in practice and on first contact it took awhile for him to get going.”

Glendale saw its mistakes and lamented its experience with only nine seniors on its 38-man roster. Big moments happened after the game was out of reach. His team struggled in the first half but the self-believe didn’t waver.

Now it’s a matter of whether Glendale can bottle up its second half and carry momentum into its week 0 road opponent San Gabriel next Friday.

“We grew up,” Lemus said. “We are a sophomore, junior heavy class and it shows for a promising future.”