Hoover High wrestling hangs on, holds off Monrovia
GLENDALE — A Hoover High wrestling program that has incrementally grown over its first three seasons avoided an unexpected step back Tuesday afternoon in the Rio Hondo League opener.
A short-handed Tornadoes team with aspirations of reaching a first-ever berth to the CIF Southern Section Dual Meet Championship tournament held off upset-minded Monrovia, 39-36.
With the win, Hoover (3-1, 1-0) kept its chances of earning the league’s one automatic and one probable at-large berth to the Western Division Championships alive with a huge matchup with visiting La Cañada (18-5, 1-0) on Thursday looming.
PHOTOS: Hoover wrestling tested by Monrovia, holds on for 39-36 win
“This was disappointing to be honest with you and we could have lost,” said Hoover second-year Coach Dave Beard, whose team finished a program-best third in league last year. “We’re a young team and we just haven’t had the seniors I thought would step up, step up.
“We’re going to have to be a lot better versus La Cañada, a lot better. They’ve got a full team and they’re going to be a full load.”
The Tornadoes forfeited two weight classes (106 pounds and 120 pounds), trailed for most of the match and were down, 30-18, after 160 pounds when Monrovia (0-1) forfeited at 170 pounds to bring Hoover within six points.
Hoover’s paramount match followed at 182 pounds when the Tornadoes’ Murad Muradyan took on the Wildcats’ Christian Luna.
Muradyan held a 2-0 advantage after the first period thanks to a takedown, but surrendered five straight points in the second round on a reversal and two-point near fall that put Monrovia’s wrestler ahead, 5-2, after two.
An escape from Muradyan was followed by a takedown from Luna that gave the visiting grappler a 7-3 advantage with just under a minute left in the third.
In what turned out to be the match’s most important sequence, Muradyan secured a reversal with 24 seconds left before landing a three-point near fall just before the buzzer to steal an 8-7 victory.
“I couldn’t believe how close that was,” Beard said. “If we would have lost that match, I don’t know. Let’s just say I would have been really angry.”
The victory proved to be a turning point, as Monrovia forfeited at 195 pounds to give Hoover its first lead, 33-30.
In the following bout, Monrovia 220-pounder Kenneth Enos momentarily gave his team the lead back, 36-33, with a pin at 2:41.
The good feelings from the victory were immediately stunted for Monrovia as it surrendered the match, rather anticlimactically, with a forfeit in the heavyweight division that gave Hoover’s Mher Torrosian a victory, one he shared with his teammates as the Tornadoes won, 39-36.
“I strongly feel that we’re the second-best team in this league and we lost because we were one wrestler short,” Monrovia fourth-year Coach Daniel Hernandez said.
Hernandez’ Wildcats started fast with two forfeits and a pin in taking an 18-3 lead, with Hoover’s only points during that span coming via a 9-7 victory at 112 pounds for Karlen Hakopyan.
The Tornadoes rallied to tie at 18 with a pin from Jesse Martinez (132), an exciting 4-1 victory from Narek Zamanyan (140) and a fall at 5:32 from 145-pounder Geraldy Martinez.
“We need to do better than this,” Jesse Martinez said. “We’re missing two seniors who left the team, but our other guys need to do better. We need more pins than this.”
Whatever momentum was gained for Hoover, was quickly snatched away by Monrovia thanks to pins from Isaac Huerta at 152 pounds and from Gabriel Onofre at 160 pounds.
“We didn’t do our best today, but we can be better,” said Zamanyan, who just missed securing a fall in the final seconds of his bout. “We can beat La Cañada and take No. 2 in league, but we have to do a lot better.”