Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/21/12
From Press Release
The U.S under-19 men’s national team captured the Federation of International Lacrosse U19 World Championship today, beating Canada 10-8 to cap a comeback run through the tournament after dropping a pair of pool play games to the Iroquois and the Canadians one week ago.
Team USA dominated on faceoffs, winning 17 of 22 as a team – Charlie Raffa won 10 and University of Delaware rising sophomore Tyler Barbarich (Twist Lacrosse, Bridgewater-Raritan) won seven – and tournament MVP Matt Kavanagh scored two goals and added two assists.
The U.S. kept its streak alive of winning every gold medal (seven) since sanctioned U19 international play began in 1988. Canada, which beat the U.S. 11-9 in overtime in pool play, finished in second place for the fifth time in tournament history. The Iroquois Nationals placed third after an 18-1 win over England earlier Saturday.
Canada was coached by St. Joseph’s University head coach and Wings’ defenseman Taylor Wray, a former Lehigh assistant. The team’s goalie was Hill School’s Brennan Donville, who had 10 saves today.
“It was quite an effort,” Team USA coach Tim Flynn said to US Lacrosse. “We had a little phrase after the game, ‘From the outhouse to the penthouse.’ They became a family off the field. They learned how to play well together. They really put everything together in the last two games.”
The U.S. outscored Canada, 4-0, in the second quarter, winning 7 of 8 faceoffs in the same period to take a 6-2 halftime lead. Canada scored three straight to open the second half and cut the U.S. lead to 6-5, but the U.S. scored three of the next four to make it 9-6 heading into the fourth quarter. Kavanagh, Connor Buczek and Ryan Tucker scored during the run.
Mike Tagliaferri made it 10-7 with 3:17 to go before Wes Berg tacked on the last goal of the game with nine seconds remaining.
Zach Oliveri made five first-half saves and Kyle Turri made four in the second half.
Kavanagh, Tucker and defenseman Stephen Jahelka were named to the All-World team. Kavanagh was named most outstanding attackman, Warren Hill (Iroquois) was named most outstanding goalie, Lyle Thompson (Iroquois) was named most outstanding midfielder and Canada’s Danny MacDermott was the tournament’s most outstanding defender.
The U.S. avenged a semifinal loss to the Iroquois before beating Canada in another rematch.
“The two games we lost, we knew we could have won,” Kavanagh said to US Lacrosse. “It was a matter of fine-tuning our offense and defense and doing the little things on the field that we did.”
Federation of International Lacrosse U19 World Championships
USA 2 4 3 1 – 10
CAN 2 0 4 2 – 8
Goals: USA – Kavanagh 2, Tucker 2, Buczek 1, Eipp 1, Leonard 1, Keenan 1, Pontrello 1, Tagliaferri 1; CAN – Tinney 2, Berg 1, Comeault 1, Currier 1, King 1, Litner 1, O’Connor 1
Assists: USA – Kavanagh 2, Leonard 1, Keenan 1; CAN – Berg 2, Tutton 2, Evans 1, King 1, Litner 1
Saves: USA – Oliveri 5, Turri 4; CAN – Donville 10
Faceoffs: USA – 17 of 22: Raffa 10 of 13, Barbarich 7 of 9; CAN – 5 of 22, Currier 2 of 11, MacKay 2 of 9, Lindsay 1 of 2
