Hoover boys’ water polo wakes up in time to win CIF playoff opener

BURBANK — When things got rough, the members of the Hoover High boys’ water polo team didn’t get down.

And when the Tornadoes found themselves trailing by three goals at halftime of their CIF Southern Section Division II first-round match Wednesday evening, they never lost hope.

Hoover climbed out of an early deficit in its postseason opener and played better in the second half to force overtime. It was in overtime where the Tornadoes really shined, outscoring the Chargers by three to secure a 12-8 victory at Burbank High.

“We have an experienced team and you could see that by the way they played in overtime,” Hoover Coach Kevin Witt said. “They know how to respond and they have that confidence level where they know they can get back into any game as long as they work on what we’ve been working on. And I thought we did that toward the end.

“In that overtime, that’s where our experience comes in. We’ve been in overtime games before and the guys have the mentality to come through.”

Hoover (22-5), which won its first Pacific League title since 1989 and has been victorious in 11 straight matches, will move on to the quarterfinals Saturday. The Tornadoes will take on No. 1 seed Laguna Beach, which defeated Santa Monica, 16-5, in a match hosted by Hoover on Saturday, likely at 6 p.m. at Burbank High.

Last season, the Tornadoes lost in the Division IV quarterfinals to El Segundo, 13-5.

The Tornadoes received a fine effort from senior goalkeeper Jonathan Salandi. The netminder had 12 saves, but six came in overtime, which helped Hoover dominate Dos Pueblos (15-15) – the No. 4 team from the Channel League – in the extra period.

“Early on, we had to figure out who the shooters were on their team and we had to focus on who we had to look out for and who we didn’t,” Salandi said. “We just took too long to do that. Usually that should take a quarter and not the first half of a game. We just waited too long.

“We were able to figure out that later in the game and that’s when we started playing better and we started catching up.”

The early going was rocky for Hoover, as it fell behind, 2-0 after one quarter. The Tornadoes missed all seven of their shots in the opening stanza.

Dos Pueblos went up, 3-0, with a goal with 5:31 remaining in the second quarter. Hoover finally broke its drought when senior Levon Tarverdov (two goals) scored with 5:20 remaining to make it 3-1. The Chargers tacked on another goal before halftime and went into the break with a 4-1 advantage.

“It was really frustrating in that first half, because I knew our team could play better than that,” Salandi said.

The Tornadoes rebounded in a big way in the third quarter, as they clamped down on defense and revved up their offense to outscore Dos Pueblos, 4-1, and knot the score at 5 heading into the fourth quarter.

After exchanging goals in the fourth and tying the score at 7, Hoover had a chance to go ahead for the first time with 1:12 left. Tornadoes sophomore David Ashkharian stole the ball and took off on a fast break. With no Chargers players within a body length of him, Ashkharian moved in on goalkeeper Ben Cable (14 saves) and took a shot, but the goalie came up with a save at point-blank range.

In the first half of overtime, Tarverdov scored with 1:05 left to give Hoover its first lead of the evening, 8-7. Ashkharian added a goal with 10 seconds left for a 9-7 Tornadoes lead.

Dos Pueblos got to within one in the second half of overtime, when Dylan Elliott (match-high four goals) found the back of the net with 2:25 to go. But Hoover responded with a goal from senior Aren Sukiasyan (two goals), one from senior Levon Gukasyan (three goals) and another from Sukiasyan.

Senior Harout Ashkharian added three goals for the Tornadoes.