Hoover boys’ soccer finishes with victory over Glendale
GLENDALE — If Thursday afternoon was indeed the end of the line for the Hoover High boys’ soccer team, then at least the Tornadoes went out a winner.
The visitors dominated Pacific League archrival Glendale High in a 3-1 victory in the regular season finale at Moyse Field.
“For us, this has been about maturing since the beginning of the season,” said first-year Hoover Coach Ace Metallinos. “Today, we played the way I had hoped we would throughout the year. Honestly, we probably should have won by more, but it’s a nice win.”
With the victory, the Tornadoes finished 10-9-3 and 6-7-1 in league for 19 points and tied Burbank (6-7-1) for fifth place.
The Bulldogs own the season series tie-breaker 1-0-1, meaning that Hoover will have to hope for an at-large berth to the CIF Southern Section playoffs as the league’s sixth seed when the pairings are announced on Monday.
For Metallinos, the victory was bittersweet because it avenged a 1-0 win for Glendale at Hoover on Jan. 22. A victory that day for the Tornadoes would have placed the team in third and, more importantly, with one of the league’s automatic playoff spots.
“Unfortunately, we have two faces,” said Metallinos, who took over a last-place team that didn’t win a league contest last season. “One of the faces is beating teams who are No. 1 and another face is losing to teams who are near last, like Glendale. What the guys won’t believe is that that loss to Glendale kept us for getting a playoff spot.”
The Tornadoes, who hold the only league win of the season over champion Pasadena, outshot the Nitros (3-11-3, 2-9-3) by a 14-6 margin with 10 shots on goal versus only three for Glendale.
Hoover led, 2-0, at the break and missed on four shots on goal through the first 15 minutes of the second half before breaking through in the 60th minute.
Senior midfielder Suren Kurazyan continued a strong day when he received a cross from Jonathan Hernandez and fired a 15-yard goal that hit the hand of Glendale’s goalie and clanked off the top of the cross and in for a score.
“It feels great to get revenge,” Kurazyan said. “I also got a goal — that’s great.”
The score was one of two on the afternoon that involved Kurazyan, who had an unofficial assist in the 11th minute when a cross to junior Romio Sislian was intercepted by a Glendale defender. The fullback, however, inadvertently headed the ball into the back of the net for an own goal.
Sislian eventually got on the scoreboard in the 39th minute on a little give-and-go action with junior Jesus Rodriguez, who fed Sislian inside the box with a pass that was converted into a six-yard goal as Hoover took a 2-0 lead.
While Glendale was limited to only a few solid looks, the Nitros broke their scoring drought with a five-yard goal from Shane Thompson off an assist from Adeh Vartanian in the 74th minute.
The loss capped a tough year for the Nitros, who finished seventh a season removed from placing second and advancing to the playoffs.
“This was very different from last year,” Glendale Coach Arthur Aghasyan said. “We didn’t have the same commitment like last year and we played almost the whole year with 12 players. We didn’t have subs and it’s hard to win. It is what it is.”
