Boys lacrosse: Redwood tightens claim to MCAL championship
Good friendships and better rivalries stoked the fire on a potential MCAL boys lacrosse title preview Thursday, with Redwood High showing its power in a 17-4 victory over host Marin Catholic.
“This is a real rivalry for sure,” said Giants junior midfielder Aidan Hackett, who scored a game-high four goals. “I have friends on that MC team and their great rivals. It’s great to beat them.”
Giants head coach Blake Atkins isn’t ready to talk about a return to the postseason just yet, although Thursday’s win leaves Redwood alone atop the league standings (10-4, 5-0 MCAL), with Marin Catholic second (7-5, 5-1). Both teams are eager to return to the North Coast Section playoffs after bitter losses last season. Marin Catholic fell to Vista del Lago in the NCS Division I quarterfinals, while Redwood fell to California, 7-6, in the semifinals, which still burns in their craws.
“We took a tough playoff loss at the end of last year and that didn’t sit well,” Hackett said. “Back then, we had a younger team, but those guys have grown up in the past year and become leaders.”
When Redwood returns from spring break, the Giants will wrap up the regular season against fourth-place Novato (3-9, 2-2) and fifth-place Branson (5-5, 2-3) — both eager to shore up their bids for the postseason. The MCAL tournament semifinals are tentatively scheduled for April 26, with a play-in game on April 24, if needed.
“This wasn’t a playoff game … not yet,” Atkins said Thursday. “We might see Marin Catholic again, and we’ll probably see a tough Tam team in the playoffs. Those will be good games, but I don’t want to look that far ahead yet. One game at a time.”
Within Thursday’s contest, there was a high-speed, full contact game of tag between the Giants and Wildcats, with hits aplenty being dished out on both sides.
“Our defense did a great job of getting turnovers and putting the ball on the deck,” Atkins said. “There was no one matchup that made the difference, it was everything.”
Marin Catholic broke a stalemate seven minutes into the opening quarter as Mack Barry gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead with a shot to the lower-right corner of the net. Barry scored two of the Wildcats’ goals with Jack Holmes adding a first-quarter goal, and Will Mangino scoring in the second quarter.
“Marin Catholic controlled most of the faceoffs and (Mack Berry) was a monster for them,” Atkins said. “If he had hit some more of his shots, it would have been a different game.”
Trailing 2-1 after the first quarter, the Giants dished out a 5-0 scoring punch in the second quarter, and turned the game around to take a 8-3 lead by halftime. The rally saw Redwood’s passing get the ball to the right sticks as the Giants found cracks in the Marin Catholic defense.
“We played with a tremendous opponent early on,” Marin Catholic coach BJ Grill said. “We looked good in the first quarter, but then the first play of the second quarter, we missed a 50/50 ball that Redwood transitioned into a goal. They kept rolling after that and we’re a young team. We didn’t have the mental toughness to come back from that.”
Colin Harper scored the Giants’ first two goals of the game, with the tying goal coming five seconds in the second quarter. Junior attacker Nolan Ewing scored the Giants’ go-ahead goal 14 seconds later as he found a path to the net. Harper, Ewing and Jake Vasquez each scored three goals for the Giants, who also got goals from Anton Rendic, Harrison Curtiss, Will Parsons and BJ Fisher.
“At halftime, we knew we had to keep up the pressure and we had to keep scoring,” Hackett said.
The frustration mounted for the Wildcats, who saw some of their shots bounce off goal posts while Redwood shots found the back of the net time and again. The Giants were on a 7-0 run in the second half before Barry scored again with 3:45 left to play.
“We played St. Ignatius last week (an 11-7 non league loss) and we got to see the level of play we need to win,” Atkins said. “We’ve got to play at that level and keep up that pace of play. … Marin Catholic is a great rivalry, but we want to score big against everybody, every game.”