Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 9/28/15
From Press Releases
The Israel national box lacrosse team will play in the men’s program’s first Medal Game — across any format — when they take on the United States at the FIL World Indoor Lacrosse Championships today at 1 pm at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY.
Israel earned the right to compete at “The Dome” with an upset win over 4th-seeded Czech Republic in Thursday night’s quarterfinal. Sunday is not only the first Medal Game for the blue-and-white, it’s the first time Israel will face the United States, in what is the biggest game in the lacrosse program’s short history.
The game will be streamed live, free of charge, at www.wilc2015.com and NBC Universal Online.
The US fell to the Iroquois Nationals on Friday night in the semifinals. The U.S. finished third in each of the previous three tournaments.
“Sometimes, and it is a hard thing to admit, you’re out there against a better team, a more experienced team,” said US coach Tony Resch (la Salle College High assistant) to Lacrosse Magazine said after hopes of finally making it to the final vanished.
“We wanted to play in that gold-medal game,” said defenseman Brett Manney (NXT Showcase Director, Holy Ghost Prep, Delaware) to Lacrosse Magazine. “There is no silver lining. We ran into a better opponent.”
It will be a Canada-Iroquois final for the fourth consecutive time. Canada defeated Israel 19-3 earlier Friday.
Manney said Resch had used an analogy about tomatoes to describe his players.
“Some of us are ripe, some of us are in the middle and others are a little green,” said Manney. “We started to see some of the green ones get riper as the week went on.
“We have a group that has worked extremely hard. The workouts we went through a month ago were the most strenuous lacrosse I’ve been a part of. I’m sure the other guys would make the same statement. We wanted to play for the guys next to us, for our country and for the coaching staff. We’ve grown over time. We want to win that bronze now. That’s our goal now.”
Canada — who is 22-0 all-time in World Indoor competition — eliminated Israel from Gold Medal contention on Friday in the semifinals, with a 19-3 win. Israel hung tough early, trailing 2-1 and 5-2 late in the first half, but Canada was able to flex their muscles and earn their spot in Sunday’s Gold Medal game with a strong second half.
Drexel grad Kyle Bergman (two goals), Noah Miller (one goal) and Chase Clark (three assists) led Israel offensively. Zachary Higgins (38:29, 35 saves, 12 GA) and Andrew Copeland (21:31, 13 saves, 7 GA) split time in goal; Higgins was dealt the loss.
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