Game Plan

Edgar Melik-Stepanyan He's in. That's all Glendale resident Vanes Martirosyan needed to know Thursday night. The 17-year-old welterweight qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens with a semifinal victory against Canada's Adam Trumpish in the 2004 America's Qualifier competition at the Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana. Martirosyan won the bout, 25-17, after staking himself to an early lead. The win assured Martirosyan, a senior at Verdugo Hills High, a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

GLENDALE ? A carefully-conceived and well-executed game plan can work wonders for a determined team, even when faced with a favored opponent far from home. The Hoover High boys? basketball team provided ample evidence of that on Friday night, following the blueprint laid out by Coach Henrik Sardarbegian to a tee and taking home a 63-48 victory at eighth-seeded Bonita in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division II-AA playoffs as a result. ?We really scouted [the Bearcats]

There was no clean sweep in local boys' volleyball when the CIF Southern Section released its playoff pairings Saturday morning. Reigning Prep League champion Flintridge Prep will carry the torch as the lone postseason entry when the CIF Southern Section Division IV playoffs begin Tuesday evening. Flintridge Prep (17-7) will host Cerritos Whitney (14-5), the Academy League third-place entry, in the first round on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Even though the Rebels are no stranger to the postseason, there are still several unknowns.

Mirjam Swanson MOYSE FIELD -- Glendale High football Coach Loi Phan worked out a game plan with his players before their 54-3 loss to Muir Friday night at Moyse Field. "Our game plan was to hold the ball for as long as possible, to run time off the clock," Phan said. "And we did a good job of that, especially in the beginning." His Nitros (0-6, 0-1 in Pacific League) did execute the hold-the-ball part of the plan well, starting the game with a 16-play drive and running 18 more offensive plays than the Mustangs' 47 offensive snaps.

Hamlet Nalbandyan The game plan was there. The execution wasn't. After losing humbly by 12 points the first time against Saugus, the Crescenta Valley boys' basketball team matched the undefeated Centurions step for step during Friday's nonleague contest at the Falcon gym. But when it came time to deliver in the clutch, CV rarely could. The Falcons shot just 19 of 50 from the field (38%) in losing to Saugus, 52-48. Even worse for CV (4-3)

Edgar Melik-Stepanyan It's a simple game plan that's worked to perfection. The Crescenta Valley Junior Baseball All-Star team has put defenses on their heels by merely putting the ball in play, and watched as its opponents have self-destructed. Coach Alan Eberhart's plan worked in Friday's win against Tujunga, and his strategy succeeded again in Sunday's Little League District 16 All-Star Tournament game. -- CV 0 5 1 1 4 -- 11 8 2 JWV 1 0 0 0 0 -- 1 4 12 -- -- CV IP H R ER BB K Shaw 5 4 1 0 3 4 -- -- JWV IP H R ER BB K Allen 5 8 11 1 2 7 -- -- WP-- Shaw (1-0)

Hamlet Nalbandyan This time, it was Tulyah Gaines' turn. Three nights after watching Crescenta Valley High star Jeanine Deno put 33 up her team, the Burroughs standout decided that Tuesday would be her time in the limelight. The junior point guard scored 17 points, dished out seven assists and collected five steals in a sluggish 47-43 nonleague victory against the Falcons at home. The win exacted some sort of revenge for Gaines and co. On Friday, a Deno-led Falcon squad earned an impressive 59-55 victory against the Indians in the title game of the second annual Lady Falcon Tip-Off Classic.

Mirjam Swanson TUJUNGA -- There's being overmatched. And there's being ridiculously, completely overmatched. Then there's being ridiculously overmatched against a team with an agenda. That was the case for the Verdugo Hills High girls' basketball team Wednesday in its 83-23 Sunset Six League loss to a relentless Grant team at the Dons' gym. "We were definitely outmatched today," Verdugo Hills Coach Dan Nakauchi said. "Out-quicked, out-sized, everything."

Hamlet Nalbandyan All Vigen Jilizian could do was shake his head. The second-year Hoover High boys' basketball coach realized just what his team let slip away following Friday night's 52-41 home setback against Arcadia in the Pacific League opener. The Tornadoes -- who have six sophomores and a freshman on their roster -- have had a better-than-expected nonleague run this season, winning nine games, four more than they did the entire 2003-04 campaign.

Edgar Melik-Stepanyan Sophomore Rafael Gallegos had a concise explanation for why the Hoover High boys' basketball played its best game of the year. "It's CV, that's all it is," said the Tornado forward after Hoover pulled off a stunning 52-46 Pacific League win Friday at home. The Falcons (10-9, 0-3 in league) brought out the best in Gallegos and the rest of the Tornadoes. Hoover's young players stepped up in every way possible to hand Falcon Coach Jim Smiley his first league defeat against the Tornadoes in his six-year tenure.

There was no clean sweep in local boys' volleyball when the CIF Southern Section released its playoff pairings Saturday morning. Reigning Prep League champion Flintridge Prep will carry the torch as the lone postseason entry when the CIF Southern Section Division IV playoffs begin Tuesday evening. Flintridge Prep (17-7) will host Cerritos Whitney (14-5), the Academy League third-place entry, in the first round on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Even though the Rebels are no stranger to the postseason, there are still several unknowns.

Coming off one of the worst seasons in program history, which included just one win and the unprecedented cancellation of two games due to an insufficient number of players, the Flintridge Prep football team needed to make some changes. First and foremost, the Rebels needed more players, and through a concerted effort to recruit on campus, their numbers have grown to 23, up from last year's 18. Fifteen are seniors. Beyond that, though, Rebels Coach Antonio Harrison saw the need to make some fundamental alterations at the core of the program in shuffling up his coaching staff and overhauling the team's approach to defense and special teams.

Hundreds of people packed the stands Sunday to watch Glendale firefighters successfully defend their title against their police counterparts during the second annual Hoop Heroes basketball charity game. Although the police had practiced their game for months, they lost to firefighters, 51-37, at Glendale High School. Nearly 600 people packed the bleachers for the game, which raised $5,000 for Zone Academy, the Salvation Army's after-school program for at-risk youth. The audience was also asked to donate canned food items as part of the game's admission, resulting in an estimated 1,000 pounds of canned goods for the Salvation Army's pantry, organizers said.

SOUTH GLENDALE — A group of Horace Mann Elementary School students on Friday were the youngest consultants Glendale parks and recreation officials said they had ever worked with. The group of a half-dozen mostly fourth- and fifth-graders presented pitches for a new proposed park space on Maryland Avenue, about three-tenths of a mile away from the school. “One of the purposes was problem solving and a higher level of thinking skills,” Assistant Principal Lynda Teems said.

GLENDALE — Whether they ended the past season on solid footing or on shaky ground, all area boys’ basketball teams — record-wise, at least — start the season anew on equal footing, ready to begin the chase for league titles and playoff berths. The most successful area program last year was Flintridge Prep, which captured its second consecutive Prep League title and advanced to the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division IV-A playoffs for the second year in a row. Odds would seem to favor the Rebels’ chances of duplicating their recent success, considering Coach Garrett Ohara returns 80% of his starting lineup.

GLENDALE — It was a bout that had drawn buzz among hardcore mixed martial arts fans and media and, no doubt, had those behind the scenes at CalledOut MMA excited to feature it, but the grappling showdown between Glendale’s Alberto Crane and Wander Braga scheduled for Saturday is no more. Instead, the 33-year-old Crane might very well have a tougher task in front of him as he’s set to face Albert Rios on Saturday night as part of CalledOut MMA’s third event at the Ontario Citizens Business Bank Arena.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — First, the Glendale High boys’ water polo team put pressure Hoover right out of the gate by taking a big lead in the first quarter. Then, the Nitros kept their defensive pressure tightly focused on the Tornadoes’ main offensive weapon, Hakop Kaplanyan, for the rest of the afternoon. That formula turned out to be all Glendale needed to end the regular season with an 18-11 Pacific League win over rival Hoover on Wednesday at Glendale, a win that slots the Nitros into the No. 2 seed for Tuesday’s Pacific League tournament, one spot above the third-place Tornadoes.

GLENDALE ? After a solid fourth-place finish in the regular season, Crescenta Valley High was the lone local girls? basketball team to emerge from the competitive Pacific League and advance into the postseason. Both Hoover and Glendale finished with 4-10 league ledgers and were left on the outside of the playoffs looking in. The constant between the three teams, however, was that all received stellar individual performances throughout the course of the season. And as a result, seven players from the three local schools have garnered all-league selections.

Ever since losing to West Valley in the CIF Southern Section Division III-AA semifinals, Renaissance has been on a tear, beating three teams in the Division V Southern California Championship and on Saturday, Renaissance Academy will represent the Crescenta Valley area in the state championship game in Sacramento, where the Wildcats will play against the Northern California regional winner, Branson of Ross, in the Division V championship game at...

GLENDALE ? A carefully-conceived and well-executed game plan can work wonders for a determined team, even when faced with a favored opponent far from home. The Hoover High boys? basketball team provided ample evidence of that on Friday night, following the blueprint laid out by Coach Henrik Sardarbegian to a tee and taking home a 63-48 victory at eighth-seeded Bonita in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division II-AA playoffs as a result. ?We really scouted [the Bearcats]