Hoover football rolls to 2-0 start
LOS ANGELES — It took two weeks for the Hoover High football team to accomplish what it took a year to do last season, which was to win two games.
Via a 55-0 thrashing of host Los Angeles Sotomayor Learning Academy in nonleague action Thursday evening, the Tornadoes improved to 2-0.
With the victory, Hoover opened the season with consecutive wins for the first time since 2013. Counting last year’s season-ending triumph over Glendale, the Tornadoes have also won three straight games for the first time since Dennis Hughes’ teams did so with a win to end 2004 and then two straight victories to begin 2005.
The shutout was the first and biggest since Hoover blanked Blair, 65-0, in coach Matt Andersen’s debut in 2013.
“The guys made it easy for me tonight,” said Andersen, whose team improved to 4-0 versus Sotomayor. “I thought the defense played well and the [offensive line] was great. I think we only had, I don’t know, like 20 to 30 plays on offense.”
The Tornadoes totaled five touchdowns of more than 25 yards and scored on eight of nine total possessions.
Senior Quinton Smith rushed eight times for 131 yards and three touchdowns and hauled in a touchdown reception. Junior Maurice Herrera had three catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing for a touchdown.
Perhaps junior quarterback Andrew Rangel had the most efficient line of the night, completing all five of his passes for 112 yards and three touchdowns.
“It really feels good tonight,” Herrera said. “Our O-line came out and helped big time. We were open all day; nobody touched our backs or our quarterback. We were unstoppable.”
Hoover had the game all sewn up at halftime as the team led, 35-0, and scored on all five of its drives.
Smith and Herrera traded relatively easy touchdowns early as Herrera scored from 11 yards off left tackle, which was followed by a six-yard scoring rush from Smith to put the visitors up, 14-0, after one quarter.
Rangel then hooked up with Herrera on a 26-yard jump ball into the end zone that the junior receiver somehow hauled in among a group of four players with 10:07 left in the second quarter.
Smith then took his turn with a 66-yard scoring sprint on Hoover’s next drive, which gave the Tornadoes a 28-0 lead with 6:43 left in the first half.
After an interception from Jordan Richardson, Hoover’s Asgher Khan capped his team’s first-half scoring with a 54-yard touchdown that gave Hoover a 35-0 lead at the break.
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Andrew J. Campa, andrew.campa@latimes.com
Twitter: @campadresports
