Nine days ago, the Tam High boys water polo team gave perennial-powerhouse Drake one of its toughest tests against a Marin County foe in recent years. The teams were tied 4-4 after one quarter, and the Pirates led by two heading into the fourth quarter before eventually winning 13-9.
The back-and-forth affair portended a potentially tight MCAL championship game.
Drake made sure that would not be the case.
The top-seeded Pirates raced out to a 7-1 lead and controlled every aspect of Saturday’s 15-5 rout of No. 2 Tam in the league title bout in Mill Valley. The MCAL pennant is 19-year coach Matt Swanson’s 15th.
“Our game plan was to play great, shutdown defense,” Swanson said. “If we played great defense, we knew we could win, because we knew we could score. The boys put in all of the effort on defense and it paid off.
“It was nice to put our foot down.”
The Pirates (18-8) took a 3-0 advantage in the first 2 minutes, 51 seconds before the Hawks (18-8) got on the board. Drake used a 4-0 run to grab a six-point lead at halftime. The second half featured more of the same, with Drake building a 14-3 edge late in the third quarter.
“We came out firing this game,” Drake senior Logan Anderson said. “We play club with a lot of these guys, so it’s fun to play against them. It’s good competition against Tam.”
Anderson led the way with five goals. Nick Berry finished with four goals, Mason Barnes added three and Isaiah Williams, Ian Christie and Mac Bihn chipped in with one apiece. Ray Holmberg made a slew of saves in the cage.
“We practiced all week on really specific shooting stuff, and (Barnes’) goals were exactly what we practiced all week, so it was great to see that in the game,” Swanson said.
Connor Stauffer, Max Pollack, Connor King, Ethan Zener and Alex Roose each found the back of the net for Tam, which was coming off Thursday’s triple-overtime, sudden-death victory over rival Redwood.
“They really took it to us,” Tam coach Bob Kustel said of Drake. “They’re a good team. We had to bring our A game, and we didn’t. You get behind 7-1, that’s too big. They played great.
“We had to play great to beat them, and we certainly didn’t do that.”
Every season, Drake’s goal for the North Coast Section playoffs is to reach the semifinals. Last season, the Pirates became the first Marin team to ever win an NCS D-I title. While the objective remains the same this fall, the circumstances are different. The Pirates will likely be seeded in the prestigious Open Division when matchups are announced Sunday. Swanson said Drake “took our licks,” during the regular season in non-league play, but the Pirates got plenty of solid experience against premier squads across California.
Kustel said he expects to earn the top seed in D-I.
“We’re a good squad,” he said. “I think it’s going to come down to us and Redwood.
“I wouldn’t want to play (Drake) in NCS. They’ll give anybody a battle. They have some good players and I hope they do well.”
