The Hoover High football team came away with a close win on Friday, defeating Verdugo Hills, 22-20, in its last nonleague game.
The fans were awaiting to see how the game would play out with Hoover’s loss from last week still lingering in everyone’s heads.
But the game didn’t start well for the Tornados.
Hoover lost a fumble on its first possession and Verdugo Hills turned the turnover into a touchdown when Jack Iafrate scored off a pass from Jered Smith less than one minute into the game. A two-point conversion gave Verdugo Hills an 8-0 lead.
With 6:53 seconds left on the clock, Hoover’s Dveen Aghanian scored a touchdown that evened the scoreboard at eight at the end of the first quarter.
Hoover quarterback AJ Francisco scored a rushing touchdown with 7:12 left on the clock in the second quarter to give Hoover a 15-8 lead.
“It was a great four quarters of football,” Francisco said.
Verdugo Hills scored a touchdown at the start of the third quarter but it missed the two-point conversion, giving Hoover a one-point lead.
Aghanian scored another touchdown in the fourth quarter with 4:37 left.
“It felt good again,” he said. “All credit to my line. They blocked incredibly well.”
Hoover senior defensive back Peter Villa also played well for the Tornados.
“I mean not a second was wasted,” Villa said. “I’m sure we had mistakes here and there, but really I feel like this game is real tight wrapped present and we’re definitely going to be going back and forth to this game all season.”
Aiden Mejia scored the last touchdown for Verdugo Hills.
“I’m growing grey hairs and I’m only 26 years old,” Hoover Coach Jordan Ward said. “But at the end of the day I’m very grateful for this group of guys.
“We came up with the mentality last week during our tough loss to never say die. Obviously that didn’t happen last Friday but we came through as a team, had a great week of preparation and at the end of the day all the adversity we have been dealing with as a team we came together as a team, came together as a family and we fought for our family.”
