The Hoover High boys’ water polo team defeated Buena Park, 12-11, on Thursday night at Glendale High in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division IV playoffs to advance as one of the final eight teams remaining in the division.
The last time Hoover was in the Division IV quarterfinals was in 2015.
Hoover will play top-seeded Bonita on Saturday. Bonita has outscored its first two opponents, 34-10, including an 18-5 win against Malibu on Thursday.
After his strong performance, David Harutyunyan stated, “We came into the game hungry for the win, we weren’t ready to let go of the season with this team bond.”
After winning their first-round match in Division IV, Hoover opened the game strongly. The Tornadoes had a 4-1 lead after scoring two goals in the final minute of the first quarter.
Contrasting their strong first quarter, the start of the second quarter was slow from the Tornados, resulting in two goals from Buena Park, making it 4-3.
While faced with a setback, Hoover put one back and for the remainder of the quarter it was a constant tussle with a lead of no more than two goals.
The score was 6-5 going into the half after many crucial saves and penalty blocks from goalkeeper Grickore Danelyan.
The third quarter was no different, remaining in a constant back and forth with Hoover getting the better end of it. The score going into the final quarter was 9-7.
The fourth quarter commenced and was a strong showing from Hoover in the opening minutes.
The Tornados scored two goals to take a 12-9 lead until a close last-minute challenge from Buena Park.
Following a strong showing, Tigran Mkrtumyan said, “After tough losses in league, we finally got the chance to prove ourselves in CIF and finally with all our hard work we’ve made the quarterfinals and were going to do our best to capitalize on that for Hoover and for our coach who has done so much for us.”
With the next game already in mind, Hoover Coach Levon Harutyunyan stated, “On to the next one.”
