Hoover boys’ water polo continues Pacific League mastery with championship
Things had become a bit complicated for the Hoover High boys’ water polo team.
By turning to its experience, Hoover got back on track and continued its mastery of the Pacific League with a big third-quarter surge.
Top-seeded Hoover scored four goals within a two-minute span in the third quarter en route to a 10-6 victory against No. 3 Arcadia on Thursday in the championship match of the league tournament at Arcadia High.
Hoover (8-0 in league) got everything it could handle from Arcadia (5-3) in order to win its second consecutive league title and third in the last four seasons.
“Arcadia played a great game and they are fast and cover a lot of water and their defense did a great job,” Hoover coach Kevin Witt said. “I think we were able to turn things around in the third quarter by limiting our turnovers and then converting on some scoring chances.
“It’s a nice thing to win league again and we do have a lot of experience. I appreciate the work they’ve put in and we’ve been able to find our groove.”
Hoover, which advanced to the championship match with a 12-9 win against No. 4 Burroughs on Tuesday, received a balanced scoring attack Thursday.
The Tornadoes, who have 10 seniors, got three goals from Hayk Nazaryan and two apiece from Vedi Gharibian, Samvel Manukyan and Hakop Ansutyan and one from Raffi Azarian.
Arcadia, which reached the championship with a 12-11 overtime win against No. 2 Glendale on Tuesday, held its own against Hoover throughout the first half, with the first quarter ending in a 3-3 tie.
The Apaches repeatedly clogged the lane in front of the cage and forced several turnovers as the squads were tied at 4 at halftime.
However, Hoover took charge in the third quarter with an impressive run.
Azarian tied it at 6 on a two-man advantage goal with 2:38 remaining before Ansuryan tallied a man-advantage goal to give the Tornadoes a 7-6 lead a minute later.
Manukyan made it 8-6 with 1:06 left in the third quarter and Nazaryan closed out the stanza with a goal with 44 seconds to go to extend the lead to 9-6.
“That was definitely a big stretch right there, the turning point,” Nazaryan said. “It made a big difference because we were able to come back and we had confidence.
“We had to find a way to get to their weaknesses and we were able to. It’s where experience can mean everything and it’s just great to win league again.”
Arcadia held a 6-5 lead following a goal by Daniel Oo with 3:16 remaining in the third quarter.
“I think we’ve made a lot of improvement since the beginning of the season and we had two very good games in the tournament against Glendale and Hoover,” Arcadia coach Janice Clark said. “I thought we did a very good job on defense, but we just didn’t get the shots off when we needed to. We would just miss here and there or a shot went off the post.”
The Apaches got two goals from Tyler Ybarra and one each from Oo, Andrew Tran, Samuel Berkun and Timothy Lu.
Hoover goalkeeper Oliver Baker finished with six saves.
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