Boys water polo: Redwood overcomes title-hungry Tam for NCS crown
To successfully defend their North Coast Section crown and secure a berth in the Northern California boys water polo playoffs, the Redwood Giants had to go through two of their toughest — and most familiar — rivals during the past two weeks.
Top-seeded Redwood earned its third NCS Division I title in four years after surviving a scare from No. 3 Tam, 12-9, on Saturday at host site Marin Academy.
The Giants, who lost to San Luis Obispo in the first round of NorCals last year, will find out the matchups for this year’s playoffs on Sunday.
“Every team gets better, even in the first and second round at NorCals,” said senior captain Sawyer Goldberg, who has been a member of Redwood’s NCS teams each of his four seasons. “We’re going into this the same. We’re still training to prove that we can be at the top.”
Redwood has emerged with a young, solid squad during a challenging postseason. The Giants earned a NCS Division I quarterfinal victory on Nov. 9 over Terra Linda, a team that nearly knocked Redwood out of the MCAL playoffs. Another league rival stepped up Saturday for a much-anticipated showdown.
“We know each other really well. We play year-round club polo together,” Redwood senior captain Ossie Joplin said. “When you know each other so well, the game gets more intense, more physical.”
The Giants rolled to a 4-1 lead in the second period, but the Red-tailed Hawks fired up their game and, after nearly 14 minutes of back-and-forth play, the teams headed into the final period tied 9-9. Redwood goalkeeper Owen Malone shut out the Hawks for the rest of the game, and the Giants netted a trio of scores to clinch the title.
“After it was tied, we just said ‘New game’ and rolled it back to the first quarter,” said Joplin, who scored two goals, both in the first half. “Our defense played really well in that fourth quarter.”
The Giants beat Las Lomas, 10-9, in last year’s Division I final, a year after falling to Miramonte in the Open Division semifinals. Redwood won the Division I title in 2021, with then-freshman Goldberg, in a 10-7 victory over Acalanes.
Tam’s last NCS D-I crown came in 2018, and this year’s squad came oh so close to adding another banner to the trophy case. The Red-tailed Hawks got a pair of goals from senior Andrew Sternfels, freshman Jasper Feldman and seniors Bern Kent and Reed Hanna each scored two goals, and one from Declan Murphy on Saturday.
Hanna scored both his goals in the second period, and his second tied the game at 6-6 with less than a minute before halftime. With Tam on the man-advantage he powered home an outside shot.
“Our energy was building,” said Hanna. “We were celebrating not just goals, but also defensive stops. Then the energy started to fade in the fourth quarter.”
Redwood struck first in the second half with a goal by junior Charlie Poser, before Feldman and Murphy answered with a pair of nearly identical goals in a 30-second span to give the Hawks their first lead of the game, 8-7, midway through the third period. Goals by Redwood’s Maddox McLellan and Storm Jackson, and Tam’s Kent sent the game into the fourth period tied 9-9.
The Giants’ emerging class of standouts took center stage during the fourth period. Sophomore Maddox McLellan’s go-ahead goal bounced off the water and past Tam goalkeeper Ethan Wallace to give Redwood a 10-9 edge 2 minutes into the fourth period.
Giants freshman Jackson Monty added an insurance goal a couple minutes later, and Poser capped the win with a shot that bounced past Wallace with 1:38 left to play.
McClellan, Poser and freshman Storm Jackson each scored two goals. Senior Travis Donaldson also scored for Redwood.
“Winning titles, you can get used to the competition, so you have that experience,” said Joplin, who has been a part of three NCS teams at Redwood. “The young guys have never experienced this before, so it was really nice to help coach them through the environment and the mental side of the game.”