One change, plenty of early home cooking on schedule for Hoover football
There are a couple of new wrinkles in store for the Hoover High football team pertaining to its 2017 season schedule.
It will begin with Hoover competing against a new team in its season opener, followed by a gigantic home stand that will span six weeks and include two nonleague and four Pacific League contests.
“I think it’s a pretty interesting schedule that we’ll tackle,” said Hoover first-year coach Terrance Jones, who took over for Matt Andersen after Andersen held the post the previous four seasons. “You see a new team the first game and then it’s pretty cool to have six straight home games. It will be nice to not have to sit on a bus for an hour or so to get to a game.”
Hoover (4-6, 1-6 in league last season for sixth place) won’t have to travel far to get to any of its road destinations, beginning with a 20-mile journey to Los Angeles for an intersection zero week game against Dymally at 7 p.m. Aug. 25.
Hoover began last season with a 28-13 win against Hacienda Height Wilson, but Hoover had to find a new opponent after Wilson decided to move in another direction. Dymally, a member of the L.A. City Section, started last season with three straight losses. The Challengers then were forced to cancel the remainder of their season because they didn’t have enough players to field a complete team.
“We put up an add on the CIF Southern Section website looking for a team to play a zero week game and we got a couple of responses,” Jones said. “The Dymally coach reached out. Obviously, we’re not familiar with Dymally, but we’ll give it a shot against them coming out of the gate.”
Hoover will compete in nonleague home games against Sotomayor at 7 p.m. Sept. 1 and Glenn at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at Glendale High’s Moyse Field. The Tornadoes will have their bye in between the Sotomayor and Glenn tilts.
The Tornadoes posted a 55-0 win against Sotomayor, another L.A. City Section team, last season and then followed with a 51-20 victory versus Glenn en route to starting a season 3-0 for the first time since 1958.
“Sotomayor is still trying to build its program and I think they should be better,” Jones said. “Glenn should be a good game again and we look forward to it after playing them last year in which both teams were able to execute quite a bit.”
Things become increasingly harder for Hoover, which will turn its focus to the league portion of the schedule.
It will begin with a matchup against Crescenta Valley, which notched a 45-7 win against Hoover and captured the league title last season. The Tornadoes and Falcons will square off at 7 p.m. Sept. 22. Both teams play their home games at Moyse, but the Tornadoes are the designated home team.
Hoover will meet Burbank at 7 p.m. Sept. 28. Burbank posted a 77-16 win in last year’s game and advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division VIII championship game against Yorba Linda.
“I see CV being great again and Burbank having a lot of confidence based off what it did last year,” Jones said. “Those two teams set the bar in our league last season, so we’ll see how we fare.”
Hoover will stay at Moyse with a contest against Muir at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 before wrapping up the home stand at 7 p.m. Oct. 13 against Arcadia. Muir handed Hoover a 28-26 setback last season before Arcadia registered a 24-7 win.
The Tornadoes will hit the road for their final three games, starting at 7 p.m. Oct. 20 versus Pasadena. Pasadena recorded a 33-14 win last season.
Hoover will make the short trip to Burroughs at 7 p.m. Oct. 27. The Indians earned a 55-21 win in 2016.
Hoover will wrap up the regular season at 7 p.m. Nov. 3 against cross-town rival Glendale in the “Battle for the Victory Bell.”
Hoover picked up a 49-12 last season to retain the bell to improve to 35-51-2 in a rivalry that began in 1930.
“That’s a game both teams always look forward to and we want to keep the bell here,” Jones said. “It’s always a great environment when you play your rival and there are a lot of people there. In order to get there, you still have to play those first nine games, though.”
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
