Water polo: Feldman powers ailing Tam squad to win in NCS opener

The Tam High boys water polo team overcame injuries, illness and frustration to give Max Pollack his first North Coast Section win as a coach on Thursday.

Jasper Feldman poured in a game-high six goals as the fourth-seeded Red-tailed Hawks built a big lead in the first half, then held on for an 11-8 victory over No. 13 Acalanes in the NCS Division I opener in Larkspur.

The Hawks (13-7, 8-2 MCAL) held a five-goal lead at halftime, despite missing two starters with injuries. Another key starter, Declan Murphy, was held scoreless as he played limited minutes while fighting a cold.

“We were missing two starters and Declan was sick as a dog, but we played hard,” Pollack said.

The Dons (18-6) closed out the game with four goals in 3 minutes against a suddenly vulnerable Tam defense.

“One thing didn’t go our way and we couldn’t recalibrate,” said Pollack, a 2020 Tam grad who took over as interim coach at the start of the season. “The worst thing is to let the bad energy from how the game ended bleed over into practice. We need to focus on Saturday’s next round.”

The Red-tailed Hawks will No. 5 Monte Vista in Saturday’s quarterfinals. Pollack is hoping his team will get healthy enough soon to make an extended playoff run.

Tam’s sophomore class was on display in Thursday’s opener, led by Feldman, who took a pass from sophomore Dax Tarbe to the inside for the game’s first goal. Tarbe followed with the first of his two goals off a pass from Rogan Burke on the counterattack for a quick 2-0 Hawks lead.

The Dons peppered the Tam cage, but sophomore keeper Ethan Wallace was largely unchallenged early on against a disjointed Acalanes power play. Wallace finished with 16 saves against 32 shots.

Burke scored twice and Samir Meleis added a goal, all coming in the first half for Tam. The Red-tailed Hawks’ attack faded with the sunset in the second half as they managed only four goals, all by Feldman, after halftime. The Red-tailed Hawks were taken out of their game and rattled by a series of penalties and had to be careful to avoid a red card. Tam was called for a total of 10 fouls, to five by Acalanes.

The Dons’ Thomas Parrot scored all three of his goals in the fourth quarter, at the same time teammate Borna Koopah scored a pair of goals during a 5-2 Acalanes run.

“We have to do a better job on the press on defense,” Pollack said. “We have to do a better job of communicating.”

• Archie Williams held on for a 11-9 victory over No. 10 seed Liberty in Brentwood during a NCS D-I first round game Thursday. The No. 7 seed Peregrine Falcons (13-13) are scheduled to face No. 2 Northgate in Saturday’s quarterfinals. The Peregrine Falcons, missing top scorer Nate Greenberg due to illness, got four goals from Nolan Anderson, three goals and four assists from Beckett Kaye, and three goals from Chris Tomlin. Goalie Josh Dixon had five saves and three steals.
• No. 11 seed Terra Linda fell 12-8 to No. 6 Las Lomas in Walnut Creek during a NCS D-I first round game Thursday. The Trojans (13-10) made their third consecutive appearance in the NCS D-I bracket. Cam Hellar had three goals and two steals for TL, which was tied 8-8 at the end of the third quarter. Harley Haveman had two goals, one assists, and a steal.
• Top-seeded Redwood rolled to a 21-4 victory against No. 16 Clayton Valley in the first round of the NCS D-I playoffs on Thursday. Oliver Rogers, Isaac Nikfar and Alex Marron each scored three goals for Redwood, which led 14-1 at halftime. Jackson Monty, Storm Jackson and Zachary Schuman each scored a pair of goals for the Giants, who also got scores from Maddox McClellan, Hudson Quirk, Hunter Robertson, Jakob Engberg, Max Lippiatt and Shane Boyd. The Giants are set to host No. 8 College Park on Saturday.

Girls

Sophia Uhlhorn-Thornton netted a game-high five goals to lead No. 4 seed Tam High to a 15-6 victory over No. 13 Encinal in Larkspur during Thursday’s opening round of the North Coast Section Division I girls water polo playoffs.

Sabine Barringer scored twice during the Red-tailed Hawks’ 4-0 run to open the game. Julia Ulvestad tallied three goals for Tam, which got a pair of goals from Cat Philp in the second quarter. Reese Arwin added a pair of goals and Laney Octavio also scored for the Hawks (20-7, 9-2 MCAL), who will face No. 5 Alameda in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

• San Marin couldn’t recover from a slow start as the No. 11 seed Mustangs fell 21-7 to  No. 6 Monte Vista at San Ramon Valley High during Thursday’s opening-round NCS D-I contest. The Mustangs (18-6) trailed 11-2 by halftime.
• No. 8 Redwood was challenged in the early going, but held off No. 9 Castro Valley, 7-2, during Thursday’s NCS D-I first-round contest in Larkspur. The Giants (17-6) got a pair of goals each from Morgan Sicklick and Tigerlily Engberg, as well as goals from Brooke Hansen, Samantha Riley and Arianna Nikfar. Redwood led 4-2 after the first quarter, then shut down the Trojans. Redwood is scheduled to face top-seeded San Ramon Valley in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
• No. 7 Marin Academy netted a 14-8 victory over No. 10 Washington at San Ramon Valley High during Thursday’s NCS D-I first-round contest. Kelly Kurtzig led the Wildcats iwth eight goals, while Hannah Reichley added four and Lily Sharif scored one. The Wildcats (15-5, 9-3) advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals against No. 2 Archie Williams.
• Archie Williams (18-8) claimed a 13-3 victory over No. 15 Northgate in Brentwood to open the NCS D-I bracket on Thursday night.