Late rally lifts Hoover boys’ water polo past rival Glendale
Late in the fourth quarter, the Hoover High boys’ water polo team found itself in an unusual situation by trailing in a Pacific League match.
But the Tornadoes battled back, although it took a couple of man-advantage goals and a huge save from reserve goalkeeper to escape danger and complete a thrilling comeback against its cross-town rival.
Hoover received late goals from Hayk Nazaryan and Samvel Maukyan and goalkeeper Raffi Azarian made a save in the closing seconds to help ignite host Hoover to a 12-11 league victory against Glendale on Wednesday.
With the victory, Hoover (6-0 in league) will be the No. 1 seed in the league tournament, which will take place Tuesday and Oct. 31 at Arcadia. The Tornadoes won the league title last season.
“It was definitely a great game and we expected a good game from Glendale,” said Hoover coach Kevin Witt, who has guided the Tornadoes to two league crowns in the last three seasons. “We’re down, 11-10, and then we go up, 12-11. It shows a lot about the experience and character that we have on the team.
“We’ll look to grind out two more wins [at the league tournament]]. It’s good experience that we got today.”
Nazaryan tied the score at 11 with 2:28 left in the fourth quarter before Manukyan (four goals) tallied the winning goal with 1:27 to play.
Glendale (14-11, 4-2 in league) had an opportunity to tie the match, but Azarian stopped a shot while looking into the sunlight with 12 seconds left to preserve the victory.
Azarian, one of 10 seniors for Hoover, spent most of the contest playing utility until entering the cage in place of Oliver Baker midway through the fourth quarter.
“it’s definitely my biggest save,” Azarian said. “I knew I would have to keep calm and he had a cross-cage shot, so I could see the ball well.”
Hoover swam out the clock after Azarian’s save.
The Nitros rallied from a pair of three-goal deficits in the second half before taking the lead at 11-10 on a goal by Rudolf Hovhannisyan (three goals) with 3:13 remaining in the fourth quarter. Hovhannisyan’s goal capped a run of four unanswered goals by Glendale in less than three minutes.
“We came back and I’m grateful for the work our guys put in during the game,” Glendale coach Narek Vardanian said. “A lot of our guys went out there and played great games.
In the end, Hoover has a lot of experience and we have to get better at closing out games.”
Glendale trailed, 7-4, at halftime before launching a comeback early in the third quarter. The Nitros tied it at 7 on a goal by Hamlet Tadevosyan with 2:59 to go in the third quarter.
Hoover then got one goal apiece from Aram Minasyan and Hakop Ansuryan (match-high five goals) to take a 9-7 advantage through three quarters.
Ansuryan converted on a five-meter shot with 5:55 left in the fourth quarter to extend Hoover’s lead to 10-7.
Hayk Yengibaryan scored one goal for the Tornadoes.
The Nitros received four goals from Gevork Karapetyan, two from Hagop Duvenjian and one from Arno Tator.
Baker finished with 10 saves for Hoover. Glendale goalkeeper Ronald George recorded 13 saves.
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