The boys’ varsity water polo came ready to play against Marin Academy on Tuesday Sept. 4, and by the end of the water slaughter, the scoreboard read 17-2 in Redwood’s favor.

The win gave the Redwood varsity team a 1-0 record in the season opening home game, and although most Redwood players said they expected a win, the game proved to be a good learning match as well.

“It wasn’t one of our toughest games,” said junior Cayman Bearly-Malinowski. “We’re going to have many tougher games later in the season, but it was a good game for us to come together. Everyone stepped up.”

Bearly-Malinowski led all scorers with 6 goals, as part of an offensive firestorm that started early in the game and lasted until Marin Academy scored two consolation goals long after the final outcome had been decided.

Bearly-Malinowski credited the score largely to Redwood’s team defense that he said did a great overall job in stopping Marin Academy’s offensive flow.

“We’ve been really focused on not letting other teams score,” said Bearly-Malinowski. “A huge part of that is communication. If someone’s open we’ll say ‘hey go get him’ to make sure everyone’s guarding who they need to be guarding.”

Goalie Ali Namakan, senior, said that in addition to defense, experience and strength were both major advantages that Redwood held in Tuesday’s game.

“Our guys are way more experienced so they knew what the MA players were going to do next,” Namakan said.  “We have the size advantage because we’re stronger than them, and we’ve been working on our defense so we were able to press up against them and make sure that they wouldn’t get as many shots as they would in a regular game.”

Namakan added several saves to help the squad to a balanced victory, as Redwood dominated Marin Academy on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.