On Saturday, Dec. 16, the boys’ varsity soccer team traveled to San Rafael to face off against the reigning Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) champions, the Terra Linda (TL) Trojans, in a non-league game. Redwood came into the match looking to extend to a 4-1 record on the season. Although this TL team achieved much success last season, many of their key players graduated and the team showcases a very different roster this year.
Early on in the match, Redwood’s play was somewhat stagnant. They were able to bottle up TL on the defensive end, however, they weren’t able to create much movement offensively. Although it was a close beginning, it wasn’t much of a back-and-forth effort as Redwood controlled the pace of the ball. The Giants were able to break the slump when they were awarded a penalty kick in the box, where senior defender, Ensio Sardans, scored with ease giving the team a 1-0 lead.
Everything seemed to pick up from there for Redwood, as under a minute later, senior Thomas Griffin hit a beautiful left-foot shot from about 20 yards out. Just seven minutes later, Griffin capped off his astounding performance with another left-foot hook shot that he was able to squeeze through the right post to put the Giants up 3-0 going into halftime.
The second half featured the same dominance that Redwood displayed in the first, as they played much more reserved, trying to contain the TL offense, as they had all game. This proved to be the winning factor, as the Giants finished off the game shutting out the Trojans and coming away with an impressive 3-0 victory.
Redwood leaves TL with an impactful win against the team that eliminated them from MCAL last year and carries the confidence into their next big match against 7-0 Jesuit High School on Dec. 20.
