LIMERICK, Ireland – The Haudenosaunee Nationals dropped a hard fought game to Team USA by a score of 10-2 in the semifinals of the 2022 World Lacrosse Men’s Under-21 World Championships at the University of Limerick. The Haudenosaunee offense was led for the second straight game by Gregory Elijah-Brown who finished with two goals, both on assists from Anahalihs Doxtator. Jack VanValkenburgh continued his outstanding tournament run in net for Haudenosaunee and finished with 12 saves on the day. Team USA was led by three goals and one assist from Brennan O’Neill and two goals and one assist from Alex Slusher. Liam Entenmann backstopped the Team USA defense with 8 saves.

“I thought defense really stepped it up today. To hold them to 10 goals in as many transition spots as they had, I thought the defense played unbelievable today,” said head coach Mark Burnam. “They’ve gotten better every single game and today they really showed where they’re at. The gameplan was to keep control of the ball and limit their touches. If they don’t have the ball they can’t score. And slow the game down. Our boys are used to shot clock. They want to go and score. It’s like holding back race horses. When you’re playing that good of team, the best in the world, you’ve got to limit their touches and increase ours and keep that momentum going.”

The first quarter was tightly contested early. Shane Knobloch put USA up 1-0 from the left side off a rebound just over a minute into the game. Haudenosaunee responded two minutes later on a man-up goal from Gregory Elijah-Brown on a backhand shovel in front off a feed from behind the net by Anahalihs Doxtator to tie the game. The game went scoreless for 10 minutes until Brennan O’Neill got on the board as he went top shelf on an assist from CJ Kirst to give Team USA a 2-1 lead. USA struck again with just two seconds remaining in the quarter as Cole Kirst took a dead ball from behind the net and found a cutting CJ Kirst who quickly fired a shot on net and buried it to make it 3-1 heading to the second quarter.

Team USA opened the game in the second quarter as they outscored Haudenosaunee 4-0. After a Haudenosaunee turnover, O’Neill dodged left and went top shelf as he was falling to make it 4-1 USA. Jackson Bonitz joined the scoring using his long pole to tip in a shot off the post from O’Neill. Alex Slusher fed Graham Bundy, Jr. who buried a shot from the left side to make it 6-1 and O’Neill found Slusher in the middle who sniped top shelf from deep to give Team USA the 7-1 lead with under two minutes left in the first half.

The third quarter was more tightly contested as it took nine minutes before O’Neill completed his hat trick on a dish from Patrick Kavanaugh for the lone goal of the quarter and a 8-1 Team USA lead.

Haudenosaunee started the fourth quarter a man-up and took advantage as Doxtator found Elijah-Brown again, this time on the backside door step to cut the lead to 8-2. However, Alex Slusher scored his second goal of the game on a wraparound from behind the net and Lance Tillman finished a top shelf snipe on an assist from Patrick Kavanaugh to make the final score 10-2 for Team USA.

Up next for Haudenosaunee is the Bronze Medal game versus Team Australia on August 20 at 4 p.m. local time (11 a.m. Eastern). The game is a rematch of the 13-7 upset win by Australia in pool play. Haudenosaunee is excited for the rematch and looking to finish the tournament with a medal.

“We’re in the medal rounds now. It’s the last game here. We got a day tomorrow off to prepare,” added coach Burnam. “To us I think that was probably our worst game that we’ve played as a whole team, offense and defensively. We got to get the ball. The main thing is when we have the ball they can’t score. Play well and limit the mistakes and turnovers.”

The win for Team USA puts them in the Gold Medal game Saturday night versus Team Canada, who beat Australia 19-1 to advance. Game schedule and live stats can be found here.

Follow Decolonize Sports on social media for more coverage of the Haudenosaunee Nationals and their journey at the 2022 World Lacrosse Under 21 Men’s World Championship.

Haudenosaunee falls to Team USA 10-2 in semifinals; Gets rematch with Australia for bronze medal on Saturday

Haudenosaunee defeats Australia 10-6 behind hat trick from Trey Deere to win bronze medal at Men’s U21 World Championships

Haudenosaunee advances to semifinals with 7-5 win over England behind five goals from Gregory Elijah-Brown