It was only a year ago that the varsity boys’ water polo team fell short of the MCAL championship in a disappointing loss to Drake before coming in second in NCS.

A year later, on Saturday, Nov. 1, cheers of excitement surrounded the Tamalpais High pool deck as the Giants beat Drake in a 9-6 victory to capture the MCAL title.

Head coach Rudy Kardos said, “They know how it feels to lose and they were not about to let that happen again.”

Unlike the 2013 MCAL championship game, Redwood led Drake for the entire game.

In the first quarter, Redwood shut out Drake’s offense and kept the score to 1-0.

Both teams picked up their offense in the second quarter, and the halftime score was 4-2 Redwood.

In the second half, momentum and tension picked up. Senior Cole Donnelly scored a team-high three goals in the second half, helping the boys to close off the win.

Including Donnelly, all six members of Redwood’s starting lineup scored. Senior Giorgio Cico made two goals in the first half, and seniors Abe Massik, Jake Racich, Brandon West, and Travis Burroughs each scored once.

Senior goalie Grayson Noyes also contributed by blocking ten of the Pirates’ shots and making three steals.

Going into the postseason, Drake held the number one seed after a 10-8 victory against the Redwood in a regular season game. During that matchup, Redwood was missing senior Brandon West, a key starter, due to an injury.

After the loss, Redwood altered their strategy for the playoffs in order to be able to capitalize on Drake’s weaknesses.

“We went in with a game plan of abusing the fact that they have a lot of younger kids on their team and we wanted to make the most of the fact that a lot of their guys were really small,” senior Abe Massik said. “Every time we set up on offense we drove to try to score on their weakest player.”

The team’s sound defense was what ultimately won the game for them, according to Kardos.

“[Drake] tried to play their game which is swimming, swimming, swimming, and substituting: trying to swim us down. We were trying to use our physicality, slowing the play a little bit, making sure that we don’t throw the ball away too early, and taking advantage of opportunities,” Kardos said.

The team’s next game will be an NCS matchup on Nov. 8. They are ranked 1 in NCS division 2.