Boys water polo: Redwood’s playoff run ends in NorCal semis

The last-minute comeback the Giants had hoped for vanished and Redwood High’s path back to the championship ended sooner than any of them would have wanted Thursday night.

The top-seeded Giants, who had been nearly invulnerable in their own water all season, suffered their first and only defeat of the year at their Larkspur pool, 10-9 to fifth-seeded Clovis in the CIF NorCal Division II boys water polo semifinals.

Clovis advances to Saturday’s championship against No. 2 Menlo, a team that Redwood (28-4) beat twice this season.

“I’m super proud of the team this year,” Redwood head coach Rudy Kardos said. “This is probably the best record we’ve had.”

The 2021 Redwood squad went 26-6 to win the NorCal D-II crown as the top seed, 14-7 over No. 7 Jesuit.

This year’s Redwood squad earned its own place in history, with the program’s third North Coast Section crown in four years. Redwood wanted one more title shot, just one more game for the seniors. Four-year varsity leader Sawyer Goldberg was in concussion protocol and unable to play during the first two rounds of the NorCal playoffs, but the Giants hoped he’d be able to return for the championship game.

But the Giants’ quest for more gold was stopped just short on Thursday.

After tying the score at six goals each 2 minutes into the third quarter, Redwood was left to play catchup with Clovis the rest of the game. Senior Ossie Joplin scored his fourth goal of the game with 1:28 left on the clock to cut the gap to just one goal.

As the time ticked away, the Giants set up for one final push with 20 seconds left. The first shot from outside hit the crossbar, but Redwood got the rebound. The Giants couldn’t find an open shooting lane as they worked the ball around to Maddox McClellan. His last-second shot cut through traffic, only to be stopped by Eagles netminder Trey Alexander, who had 10 saves against the Giants.

“This game should have been won in the first half. It should not have gone down to the last second,” Kardos said.

Clovis scored twice in the first minute of the game before Redwood rallied with goals from freshman Storm Jackson and Joplin to tie the score at the end of the first period.

A minute into the second period, Joplin scored on a shot from 2 meters, scooting the ball under Alexander’s right arm for the Giants’ first lead of the game. But the Eagles (24-7) came right back to tie the game on a goal by Kannon Klement, who had three tallies on the night, as did teammate Alexander Minton.

Giants goalkeeper Owen Malone, who had 20 saves against the Eagles, stopped a flurry of shots in the second period, but Clovis managed to claw out a 6-5 halftime lead.

Redwood powered up its attack in the first half, and took nearly 40 shots on goal in the game, but too many balls went astray and hit the posts.

“We must have hit the post eight times tonight,” Kardos said. “We made our own share of mistakes. It’s a sport where you can’t rely on luck at the end.”

Those missed shots against an aggressive Clovis defense stifled Redwood’s rally efforts in the second half.

McClellan, senior Lukas Knauer, Charlie Poser and Jakob Engberg each scored one goal for the Giants.

“We had an awesome group of seniors,” Kardos said. “Sawyer would have made a difference tonight. But Sawyer and Ossie were tremendous all season. Knauer really stepped up tonight, and our younger guys played well.

“The bar is set really high, and to step up next year is not going to be easy. We have a solid core coming back, and hopefully they’ll all work hard in the offseason and come back for another strong season in August.”