Boys lacrosse: Long time coming, Marin Catholic beats Redwood for MCAL crown

The Wildcats got a gorilla off their backs with Marin Catholic’s victory over its nemesis, Redwood, to claim the MCAL boys lacrosse pennant.

The Wildcats got a gorilla off their backs with Marin Catholic’s victory over its nemesis, Redwood, to claim the MCAL boys lacrosse pennant.

“We needed this win,” Wildcats head coach BJ Grill said as his players celebrated their 14-8 victory over the Giants — the first time Marin Catholic has defeated Redwood for the title since 2018, according to Grill.

Saturday’s game had all the hallmarks of a Redwood-Marin Catholic showdown as friends and club teammates found themselves battling for the MCAL championship. Neither side asked nor gave any quarter, and neither side could gain a solid advantage until the fourth quarter,

“It was awesome,” said Marin Catholic’s Tate Sedlachek, who scored three goals, tied for the team high with Mack Berry and Jake Holmes. “These guys are usually on the same team, so to go out and compete with your best friends is the best experience.”

Marin Catholic (15-5) is looking for its first North Coast Section Division I title as the tournament begins Tuesday after Sunday’s seeding meeting. The Wildcats won the NCS D-II crown three years in a row, from 2014-16.

Redwood (11-8) is seeking to regain the NCS D-I title it last won in 2013. The Giants fell to De La Salle, 13-10, in last year’s championship game. Saturday’s MCAL championship might have been just a tuneup for another playoff tilt between Marin Catholic and Redwood, who could face each other in the NCS bracket, as they did in last year’s quarterfinals.

“I don’t think we played bad in the first half,” Grill said. “It was just really good lacrosse, where we made plays and Redwood made plays, and Redwood’s a really good lacrosse team. Two things happened in the second half that changed the tempo. One, our decision-making offensively improved tremendously, simplifying things so we didn’t turn the ball over. … The second thing is faceoffs. Matt Bailey dominated the second half. He was the best player on the field.”

Marin Catholic finished Saturday’s game on a 6-0 scoring steak to close the book on what had been a gritty, back-and-forth championship struggle. The Giants had held Ohio State-bound Colin Puckett scoreless through the first half, but he emerged with the eventual game-winning goal with 1 minute, 57 seconds left on the clock in the third quarter. Puckett caught the Giants on a line change and swooped into position to score his only goal of the game, which was also certainly one of the biggest scores of the game. Puckett kept the momentum rolling as he assisted on two goals in the fourth quarter to finish with three.

The Wildcats got a pair of goals from Will Mangino. Harrison Tyler had three assists and a fourth-quarter goal.

“We had multiple scorers,” Grill said. “We have great depth that allowed us to do a lot. We have great players who didn’t get on the field today because of that depth, but that’s a good problem to have.”

Aidan Hackett scored a team-best three goals for the Giants, who also got two scores from Will Parsons and one each from Nolan Ewing, Jake Werner and Matt Holmstrom.

Goals by Holmes and Sedlachek gave the Wildcats a 2-0 lead to start the game, before Holmstrom leapt up to snare the ball and pounded it into the net at the buzzer to end the first quarter. Hackett and Werner scored less than 30 seconds apart at the start of the second quarter as the Giants took a one-goal edge.

That started a tug of war, with the the teams exchanging the lead every few minutes through three quarters. The first half ended with the sides knotted at five goals each after Hackett curled around the perimeter for a goal from 15 yards out.

Ewing scored to start the second half for a 6-5 Giants lead, but then Marin Catholic stormed right back to retake the advantage.

Bailey won 20 of 26 faceoffs against Redwood senior Ian Rothbart to help control the pace of the offense and watching his teammates score, until he was rewarded. Six seconds after Holmes tied the game 6-6 in the third quarter, Bailey took grabbed the ball in the faceoff circle and took it himself for a go-ahead goal through traffic.

“These were two physical team, two athletic teams,” Bailey said. “We won the ground balls and the balls in the middle of the field, and the score is a testament to how well we were able to play.”