Hoover football can’t hold on in loss to Glenn

A fourth-quarter collapse did the Hoover High football team in on Friday night in its nonleague home game with Glenn.

The Tornadoes gave up 22 unanswered points in the final frame to suffer a 33-20 loss in a sloppy and heated game littered with penalties.

Blown defensive assignments, a botched onside kick recovery and costly penalties, among other mishaps in the quarter committed by the Tornadoes, had coach Terrance Jones hesitant to comment post game.

“Lazy,” he said when asked to describe the fourth quarter.”You watched this game, do you think that team is better than us?

“That team is not better than us. We were playing against the refs and that team.”

Hoover (1-2) led 20-11 after the third. But the first play of Glenn’s opening drive in the fourth went 67 yards on a pass down the middle of the field. Dimitri Hernandez punched it in four plays later to cut the Tornadoes lead to 20-19.

A turnover on downs gave the Eagles the ball back. After prompting an offsides call against Hoover, quarterback David Sanchez connected with Carlos Manriquez for a 60-yard strike to give Glenn a 25-20 advantage with 5:15 left to play in the game.

With intentions of responding and recapturing the lead, the Tornadoes were instead ill-prepared on an offside kick, which was recovered by the Eagles after a Hoover player touched the ball despite it not traveling 10 yards.

On the ensuing possession, Glenn put the game away with a drive that started on its own 48-yard line. Carlos Pulido, who finished the game with 154 rushing yards, capped the drive with a 10-yard touchdown, increasing the lead to 13 points with just over a minute remaining.

“I’ll tell you this, they gotta execute,” Jones said. “We gave it away at the end.”

Hoover defeated Glenn last season, 51-20.

It was a slow start as much as it was a nightmarish finish for the Tornadoes. Not having played in three weeks following a forfeit win and a bye, Hoover showed enthusiasm to take the field but the layoff quickly resulted into rust as the game’s opening drive took up 16 plays before a field goal gave Glenn took an early 3-0 lead.

The first of five turnovers on downs from Hoover’s offense on its first possession of the game quickly led to Glenn getting the ball back and increasing its cushion to 11-0 on a touchdown pass from Sanchez, who finished the game with 259 passing yards on 11 completions.

Hoover got on the board with an Andrew Rangel to Guillermo Corrales 29-yard touchdown pass with 6:26 left in the second quarter. After forcing a punt, a Rangel option to Maurice Herrera (115 yards on 10 carries) went 56 yards to give the Tornadoes their first lead of the game. Herrera also hauled in six receptions for 49 yards.

Momentum was clearly on Hoover’s side when Quran Boldin strip-sacked Sanchez, giving Hoover the ball on the Eagles’ 31.

Boldin, who led the team with 128 yards on the ground, made his presence felt on offense, capitalizing on his own forced turnover, breaking tackles and sprinting for a 24-yard touchdown as time expired in the third quarter.

The fourth quarter was another story.

They will try to turn it around as league season starts Friday against Crescenta Valley.