Sports briefs: Branson ends long road stretch with another win
Thomas Lardner ran for two scores, caught a touchdown pass and threw for another as the Branson School eight-man football team rolled to a 58-20 road victory Friday against California School for the Deaf in Fremont.
Lardner, a sophomore running back, had perhaps his best game of the season. His throwing touchdown came on a trick play to tackle eligible Will Schuyler just before halftime.
Branson quarterback George Gale had a pretty solid game throwing the football, too, accounting for five more touchdowns.
Zach Olrich caught two touchdown passes and Rodrigo Diaz ran for a score.
Branson led 36-12 at the half and got the clock running in the third quarter. Defensively, the Bulls were led by Schuyler (12 solo tackles), Nathan Kwai (three sacks, six solo tackles) and Mo Jacoby.
“(Jacoby) had at least four pass breakups and he’s tackling in the open field,” Branson coach Max Pond said. “He had six or seven open-field tackles at the line of scrimmage on the edge.”
Branson (3-1, 1-0 North Central League II) finally gets to play a home game at 1 p.m. Saturday against South Fork. The Cubs picked up a 29-12 win against Calistoga — the team Branson defeated in the North Coast Section title game — last week.
Field hockey
Redwood picked up a pair of impressive road wins in Saturday’s doubleheader sweep, hosted by Davis. The Giants shut down Davis, 1-0, in the early game. Natalie Poncet scored the winning goal, with an assist from Sammy Haan.
Redwood followed that with a 5-1 victory over Chico in the afternoon, as Haan led the attack with two goals and two assists. Eliza Back netted two goals and Eleanor Titcombe scored once. Amanda Mueller and Bella Wagner came through with assists.
“(They) were both great games and hard won,” Redwood coaches Jen Reidy and Alene Copp wrote in a text. “Redwood came out strong in both games, controlled much of the play and never let up and really made beautiful possession passes and goals.”
Girls tennis
Redwood’s team and Tam’s top singles player both kept their unbeaten records in MCAL intact on Friday with the Giants winning the other three singles matches and sweeping the doubles en route to a 6-1 victory.
Ella Povio, Julia Laury and Charlotte Brod came away victorious in the Nos. 2-4 singles matches, respectively for the Giants (12-0, 9-0).
Tam’s Gabriella Plonowski pulled out a close match against Jordan Marotto at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 3-6, 11-9.
Girls volleyball
Malia Parsons had a team-high 10 kills as Tam rolled to a 25-9, 25-16, 25-10 win against Novato Friday. Natalia Clifford posted nine kills and nine digs for the Red-tailed Hawks (22-4, 4-2). Wesley Slavin had 29 assists and five digs. Tam also got contributions from a pair of freshmen in Jade Curtin Savala (nine digs, three aces) and Natalie Stanford (five kills).
Redwood stayed unbeaten in league despite being pushed to a fifth set by Terra Linda Friday. The Giants (17-4, 5-0) dropped the first set but righted the ship in a 24-26, 25-17, 25-17, 12-25, 15-7 victory. The Trojans (18-9, 2-3) were led by Nadia Hutchinson’s 26 digs and two aces. Ceci Osborn had a team-high 13 kills and three aces. Olivia Brewster had 11 kills and five blocks.
Mia Clayton had 10 kills and hit .533 for the match as Marin Catholic stayed unbeaten in league with a 25-17, 25-13, 25-12 win against San Rafael. Krystal Rose Huff added seven kills for MC (16-6, 5-0). Molly Harrison dished out 20 assists and Isabella Do Arellanes added 12 digs. The Bulldogs (13-10, 1-5) were led by Jade Von Doepp’s seven kills and seven digs. Tenley Brovelli had 12 digs and seven digs while Adelaide Gow had 10 digs.