On Thursday, Oct. 24, boys’ varsity water polo secured a 17-7 win over San Rafael, a big win on senior night to bring their Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) regular season to a close.
Redwood came into the game confident and ready for a fight. Varsity coach
Rudy Kardos gave his insight into the team’s strategy.
“Not to discredit them [San Rafael], but they are one of the bottom teams in our league, so it wasn’t really about ‘are we gonna win?’ But more letting our seniors have fun and give them some extra playtime,” Kardos said.
Senior captain Sawyer Goldberg brought the Giants to an early lead, scoring two of the Giant’s three goals in the first quarter. San Rafael stayed in the game, tying the match at 4-4 early on. Senior co-captain Ossie Joplin kept the Giants’ momentum going, scoring three goals in the first half.
Redwood finally got going in the second half, scoring eight goals compared to San Rafael’s two.
Sophomore player Maddox McClellan talks about how the team was able to keep their motivation up.
“I think that at halftime, we realized that even though we were playing hard and winning, the game was closer than we wanted it to be, and that motivated us to keep up the intensity throughout the rest of the game,” McClellan said.
McClellan was especially impressed with senior Travis Donaldson’s performance.
“I was very impressed with Travis’ performance because every time we put him in the set, he would put in a very good effort and gained position at least half the time,” McClellan said.
This big win on senior night was much needed for team morale as they head into the MCAL playoffs next week.
“I think this win is nice because a lot of different people scored and it’s nice to have a goal under your belt because it gives everybody a boost of confidence going into the postseason,” Joplin said.
Kardos looked back on last year, and discussed how the postseason will go. “This team has the same opportunities. Right now, we have a better record than last year, so we’ll see how the postseason goes. But at this point, any game in the postseason is a win-or-lose situation, so we can’t afford any kind of mistake from that end,” Kardos said.
With this win, the team moved to 8-1 in the league, securing a second-place finish and playoff bye. Their next game is the MCAL semi-finals on Oct. 31 at Archie Williams at 6:30 p.m.
