Hoover High football gets back to winning by topping Sotomayor

GLENDALE — Hoover High’s football team has prided itself over the years on being a running team that has relied on a steady stream of workhorses to carry the Tornadoes through a season.

They’ve discovered their new workhorses for the 2014 campaign.

With starting running back and team captain Rayvin Tanhueco sidelined for at least another month due to an injury, the Tornadoes have turned to Davit Nersisyan and Elijah Augustine to punish opponents on the ground game.

Nersisyan and Augustine were up to the task in Friday’s nonleague contest against Sotomayor.

The seniors combined to rush for 239 yards and three touchdowns, leading Hoover to a 26-12 victory at Moyse Field that snapped the Tornadoes’ nine-game losing streak.

“We have a great one-two punch,” said Tornadoes Coach Matt Andersen, whose team suffered a 39-26 setback against Sotomayor a year ago, but was then awarded the win by forfeit after discovering that the Wolves used an ineligible player. “We’re a running offense. When we have Rayvin come back, we’ll have three guys who we could turn to. We can’t wait to have Rayvin get back. But there’s nothing like having two guys [like Nersisyan and Augustine] who do what they do. They’re natural athletes.”

Nersisyan (136 rushing yards) and Augustine (103 yards) are natural athletes who did not even suit up to play for the Tornadoes (1-1) a year ago.

Nersisyan opted not to play to focus on his grades and Augustine, a transfer from West Valley High in Washington, said he was not eligible to play.

They’re glad they returned this season.

So is Andersen.

“They can both run and get tough yards,” he said.

Augustine punished Sotomayor (0-2) early. He rushed eight times for 35 yards on the Tornadoes’ first drive, which culminated with a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Vaughn Parawan that gave Hoover a 7-0 lead with 20 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Sotomayor, which scored two minutes into the second quarter, but missed the extra point, slowed the Hoover running backs throughout the second quarter and the early stages of the third.

But Augustine finally broke through in the third quarter with a 27-yard touchdown run down the right sideline that gave Hoover a 14-6 lead.

“It was all the offensive line,” Augustine said. “If it was not for them, we could not do anything.”

The Wolves cut the Tornadoes’ lead and had an opportunity to tie the score after a 19-yard touchdown pass from Daiveon Roberts to Edger Dominguez with 3:13 remaining in the third. But Sotomayor could not convert on the two-point conversion, giving the ball back to Hoover.

The Tornadoes took seven minutes off the clock on the ensuing possession, which ended with a 12-yard touchdown run from Augustine.

Nersisyan, playing with hip and ankle injuries, capped the scoring with a 38-yard touchdown run with 1:49 left in the game.

“I toughened up and played [through the injuries],” Nersisyan said. “This one made it worth it.”