Sequoia win sets stage for 3-team co-championship in PAL Bay water polo

While Sequoia has six all-time PAL championships to its credit, all of them have come in the lower PAL Ocean Division.

“Honestly, it’s incredible,” Sequoia head coach Eric Bittner said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a season this good before, so I feel honored to be able to share this with the guys. ... It just feels surreal.”

Woodside (9-2, 15-4) jumped out to an early lead, but Sequoia scored an equalizer just before halftime on a goal from sophomore Alexi Bonnet. Just over a minute into the third quarter, the Ravens took the lead on an AJ McDonald goal.

McDonald scored a hat trick, sharing the game-high of three goals with Woodside senior Julian Hull. Sam Van Wert, Derek Hymer, Matteo Chocano scored two goals apiece for the Ravens. Every Sequoia starter tallied at least one goal, while Woodside held McDonald to under his season average with consistent double-team defense from sophomore Will Stevenson and senior Joseph Hohl.

Hohl and sophomore Toby Yuen scored two goals apiece for Woodside. Stevenson was held scoreless, but recorded a game-high three assists.

“Today [Stevenson] had pretty good assists and I think he had a good game because he had to guard most of the time McDonald ... and maybe he wasn’t 100% brilliant on offense because of that,” Woodside head coach Bruno Antonino said.

Bittner complimented Woodside’s defense of McDonald as well.

“I think very well, honestly,” Bittner said. “[McDonald] scored seven against M-A (last week), and he’s been averaging five-pus goals a game. So, they did a good job ... but that’s why I was so happy to see the scoring so spread out.”

Woodside entered the day all alone in first place after leapfrogging M-A last week. The Wildcats went 2-0 on the week, including a 12-5 win over M-A. M-A went 0-2 last week.

“Of course, it was a tough loss because the guys wanted to win this game with the big rivals,” Antonino said. “Sequoia and Woodside are big rivals. They’re good friend out of the water so, of course, they want to beat each other. So, unfortunately the guys were not happy after.”

Bittner is a 2014 graduate of Sequoia and was a sophomore when the program won a co-championship in the PAL Ocean Division in 2012. He went on to attend USC, where he played club water polo for the school’s Collegiate Water Polo Association team. He earned CWPA Coach of the Year honors as a player-coach. The club team finished second in the nation in 2019 in his final year coaching there.

At Sequoia, Bittner led the program to the PAL Ocean Division title in 2022. In moving up to the PAL Bay last season, the Ravens finished in fourth place. This season’s success has come as something as a surprise for the third-year coach.

“I thought we’d have a good season, but I think we’ve exceeded even what my expectations were,” Bittner said.

Sequoia wraps up its regular season Wednesday at home against Carlmont, while Woodside is at Hillsdale, and M-A (9-2, 13-8) travels to Aragon. The PAL has never had three teams share a league championship in either the Bay or Ocean divisions.