All it took was a couple handoffs to Grayson Doslak.

That’s an overstatement, of course. But one drive, made up entirely of carries by Los Gatos’ junior running back, changed the game in the Wildcats’ 14-7 win over Serra in the first round of the Central Coast Section Open/Division I playoffs on Saturday.

Los Gatos trailed 7-6 in the third quarter and had just forced a fumble to stop a promising Serra drive. That’s when Doslak got to work.

On six consecutive rushing attempts spanning the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, Doslak gained 79 yards, punctuated by a 1-yard touchdown run to put the Wildcats up 12-7. A two-point conversion pass from Scotty Brennan to Beau Musser made it 14-7, and that was all the Cats defense would need the rest of the way.

“Everyone was just clicking,” Doslak said. “We realized that we’ve got to rely on the run game to beat these guys. Our line was ready. Everyone was fired up.”

It wasn’t all the run game, though that certainly played an outsized role down the stretch. Two forced fumbles by Los Gatos’ defense were a major key as well.

After the Cats (9-2) took the lead in the fourth quarter, Serra responded with a 10-play drive that advanced to Los Gatos’ 35-yard line.

But no further. The Wildcats punched the ball out of Nano Latu’s hands and pounced on it to snuff out Serra’s potential game-tying drive.

“We saw a little bit of looseness with the ball,” Los Gatos coach Mark Krail said. “And we knew if we just kept pounding bodies on them, things were going to happen.”

The win over Serra was Los Gatos’ first since 2014, the last meeting between the Bay Area powerhouses. As Los Gatos’ coach, Krail is now 2-0 against Serra coach Patrick Walsh. Walsh’s Padres beat Krail’s Pioneer team in a 2009 CCS game.

Serra’s loss Saturday was its first loss in CCS play since 2018. The Padres, who had represented Northern California in the CIF Open Division state championship three years in a row, entered this year’s playoffs as a No. 4 seed.

By virtue of their seed, Serra (5-6) didn’t have a shot at the Open title this season. Now, the Padres are faced with a much earlier end to the year than they have experienced in some time.

“We’ve got to improve as coaches and figure out ways that we can motivate better in a year like this,” Walsh said. “We haven’t been here in a long time. And that’s something that I’m going to have to face in the offseason, to make sure that the ’25 Padres are more prepared than I got the ’24 Padres to win on the scoreboard.”

— Christian Babcock

CCS boys water polo

Sacred Heart Prep 10, St. Francis 9 >> The Bay Area’s boys water polo dynasty added more championship hardware to its crowded trophy case. Sacred Heart Prep made it seven Central Coast Section Open Division titles in a row on Saturday night as the Gators took down the Lancers.

“I feel like I’m top of the world,” senior Nelson Harris said.

Clay Carrington scored four goals for SHP, and Harris bagged two while Oliver Marcin scored twice as well.

That doesn’t mean it was easy.

St. Francis, which had already lost to SHP twice this season, gave the dominant program everything it could handle.

Chase Krupitzer scored thrice for St. Francis, and Darius Sayers scored twice.

The Gators led 6-2 midway through the second quarter, scoring four consecutive goals on 5-meter penalties. But the Lancers regrouped, scoring three of the final four goals of the period to go into halftime down just 7-5.

Krupitzer scored twice and Viollier put in one to tie the score at 8-8 with 47 seconds left in the third quarter. But Kirincich took the lead back for SHP just 20 seconds later.

Carrington added a goal in the fourth quarter to give SHP an insurance score, one they needed when Robert Swanson cut the lead to one with 1:32 left in the game.

But SHP got the stops it needed, and the Gators clinched their seventh Open title.

— Joseph Dycus

NCS boys water polo

No. 4 De La Salle 14, No. 2 Miramonte 13 (OT) >> As soon as Hayden Tully’s game-clinching goal found the back of the net, the madness began.

The pool at Campolindo High School was quickly filled with the De La Salle players, coaches and fans who packed the student section in the bleachers on the west side of the Soda Aquatic Center.

In what will go down as an all-time classic water polo match, De La Salle captured the North Coast Section Open Division title behind a golden goal from Tully in overtime.

The Spartans captured their seventh section title and have won the Open Division — the NCS’s top bracket — three of the last four years.

“This was huge for us,” Tully said after the game. “It was a long game. I’m just speechless right now.”

Miramonte looked to be pulling away toward the end of the third period.

Down a goal, De La Salle brought everyone into Miramonte’s half of the pool and attempted a shot with seconds remaining. The shot was missed but a second was left on the clock, which was just enough time for goalie Cooper Stern to heave a shot the length of the pool that kissed the back of the net to give Miramonte a 11-9 lead going into the fourth period.

To make matters worse, Miramonte took its biggest lead of the night early in the fourth when Patrick Stice netted his sixth goal of the game, giving the Mats a 12-9 lead with just more than 6 minutes left in regulation.

But the Spartans found a way to claw back.

Tully scored twice to get De La Salle to within one and senior attacker Davidka Skov scored the tying goal at the 4:26 mark, shifting the momentum back to the Concord school.

In the second overtime period, De La Salle’s Michael Peeff and Miramonte’s Brock Bliss each scored to keep the score tied and trigger a sudden-death period, when the first team to score would win the NCS Open Division title.

While De La Salle was methodical in getting back into the match, it didn’t take long to find Tully for the winning goal. As the Spartans skipped the ball around the perimeter, Tully positioned himself perfectly at the center of the Miramonte defense. When he finally got the ball, he turned and fired a laser to the top right corner of the goal.

“We made some adjustments right before the end of (regulation) and Hayden was a big part of that,” De La Salle coach Robert Arroyo said. “Luckily, his number popped up and he was able to get free and put that shot away.”

Tully ended the match with three goals and a steal.

It was a huge victory for a team that was battle-tested all season. De La Salle faced the likes of JSerra Catholic, Harvard-Westlake and Mater Dei in the Southern Section to top teams in the Bay Area such as Sacred Heart Prep, St. Francis, Campolindo and Miramonte.

“This win was just huge for us,” Arroyo said. “It just shows the tradition that we’ve been able to get started and continue.”

— Nathan Canilao