Redwood rolls Jesuit to claim D-II

Giants become just 2nd county team to win NorCal title

Throughout its North Coast Section and NorCal playoff run, the Redwood High boys water polo team has been able to jump out to early leads and not look back.

On Saturday at their home pool, the top-seeded Giants were able to parlay that early success again to knock off No. 7 Jesuit of Carmichael 14-7 to claim the NorCal Division II title. Redwood joins the Archie Williams boys team as the only Marin squads to claim a NorCal title in water polo since the tournament’s inception four years ago.

“You don’t want to give a team in a game like this too much space,” said a drenched Redwood coach Rudy Kardos, who joined his victorious team in the pool after the final buzzer. “If you can set the tone in the first quarter, it’s going to be set and we just have to maintain and that’s what we did. It was the best start to a game we’ve had all season.”

Max Matthews finished with a game-high four goals and was able to shut down Jesuit’s top player — Keegan Moore —- on defense. Matthews scored twice in the first quarter and Travis Hughes notched both of his goals in the first period to help the Giants (26-6) build a 7-1 lead after the first quarter.

Hughes got the Giants on the board just 45 seconds into the game when his skip shot found the net. The Marauders (18-15) made it 1-1 when Moore tallied his first of three goals 30 seconds later. Moore was the only Jesuit player to score multiple goals.

Matthews scored on a pass from Hughes 12 seconds later and Redwood led for the remainder of the contest. Hughes led the Giants with four steals to go with his three assists.

Dylan Zorn (three goals, one assist, one steal) scored from long range then Preston Page (two goals) scored in front of the net on a pass from William Zech. Matthews, Hughes and Zech closed out the first-period scoring to make it a sixgoal advantage.

“Our team was really stoked to win NCS and now this,” said Matthews, who also had two steals and won all four sprints. “We stepped up our grit and determination at the end of the season and this is where it pays off. This is a great way to wrap up the season.”

Jesuit was able to climb back into it with a 4-2 scoring run in the second quarter to close the deficit to 9-5 at halftime.

Redwood owned the final two quarters, outscoring the Marauders 5-2 during that span to close it out.

“It was a tough loss for us,” Jesuit coach Zac Koerner said. “Redwood came out really strong and aggressive and made shots early. We had to play catchup the rest of the way and couldn’t close the gap.”

Redwood goalie Charlie Mills was instrumental in thwarting many Jesuit scoring opportunities. Mills recorded seven of his 11 blocks during the final two quarters to go with a pair of steals in the game.

“We really wanted to beat Archie Williams at MCALs and after that we told ourselves we weren’t going to lose again,” Mills said. “This is an amazing feeling. Our school has never done this before. We didn’t think about getting this far until the final game of NCS and that’s when we really wanted to bring this home.”

The Giants also got key contributions from Zech (three assists), Page (two assists, one steal) and Marco Asiano (penaltyshot goal).

The Giants were able to rededicate themselves in the postseason after suffering a heartbreaking 1211 loss to Archie Williams in the MCAL title game — which Redwood led by two goals entering the fourth period. The Giants responded by going 6-0 to close out the season and collecting the section and NorCal titles in the process.

“They say you learn more from failure than you do from success,” Kardos said. “The failure in that (Archie Williams) game paved the road for us the rest of the season.”