Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/3/23
In what was a story of resilience and drama, the Philadelphia Freedom 2028 Red team finished 3rd in the 2023 Lacrosse World Series Championship last weekend at Mecklenburg County Sportsplex in Matthews, N.C. after bowing out in a semifinal OT thriller.
Freedom came into the tournament as the No. 5 seed, in a pool with No. 6 Boston Blue Jays, No. 14 True Illinois, No. 19 Orange Crush and No. 24 Evolve Elite.
Day 1 began with a game against a better-than-anticipated Orange Crush team, who took an early lead – a theme that would play out in each of the six games Freedom would play in the tournament. Despite the early deficit, the team fought back to take the 6-5 lead late, and Grady Topf made a doorstep save in the waning seconds to preserve the team’s first victory of the tournament.
The second matchup of the day was the much-anticipated meeting of the top two seeded teams in the pool – Freedom and Boston Blue Jays – and it figured to go a long way to deciding placement in the bracket. The game did not disappoint, though early on it seemed like it might for the Pennsylvanians, as Freedom was down 3 goals on multiple occasions and faced a 5-2 halftime deficit against a strong and confident opponent.
The second half was a different story, though, as the team reasserted itself and slowly chipped away at the lead, with goals from Paul Taraborelli, Manny Strid and Owen Morret. Morret’s second tally of the half with under one minute left completed the comeback at 7-6, but it now was Evan Adams’ turn to preserve the lead just before the final whistle, with a save on a hard offstick low shot, sending Freedom into the first evening sitting on top of the pool with a 2-0 record.
Day 2 began with the knowledge that a victory against Evolve Elite from Canada would clinch first place in the pool for Freedom. Despite this motivation, the team found itself again trailing early. This time, it was Adams and his defensive mates pitching the second-half shutout which enabled the comeback to unfold. It featured fourth-quarter goals from Tyler Stukis (voted 2nd Team All-World for his performance in the tournament), Will Caputo and Morret, and turned an earlier nervous three-goal deficit into a reasonably comfortable three-goal victory, and ensured Freedom would reach the knockout round, with only its placement still uncertain.
The second game of the day saw Freedom face off with the Central Region Champion True Illinois, who had already been eliminated from bracket contention. With Paul Taraborelli – half of the often-used and successful Taraborelli-Connor Moles faceoff tandem – nursing what appeared to be a significant injury, Henry Ingersoll stepped in to share faceoff duties and immediately made a positive impact, beginning a string of faceoff wins which would ultimately place him 9th in faceoffs won for the tournament. The possessions won by Ingersoll and Moles helped pave the way for goals by Michael Olender, Strid, Stukis, Moles himself, plus a hat trick by Morret, and finally gave the Freedom faithful a stress-free second half (despite trailing by a goal in the first quarter), with a comfortable 7-3 win to finish pool play undefeated. After a couple surprising results from other pools, Freedom was seeded third in the bracket due to their third-best goals against amongst the five undefeated teams.
Day 3 started with a quarterfinal matchup with the bracket’s sixth-seeded Kings from Colorado. The matchups seemed to finally be in Freedom’s favor, with Ingersoll and Moles dominating the faceoff X, and the smaller Kings team struggling to defend the offensive barrage or find much space offensively. Taraborelli re-emerged with a goal, joined by Olender, Morret, Strid and Moles, plus 2 each from Ingersoll and Stukis, and punctuated with an end-to-end pole goal from Josh Logan, complete with ‘Archer’ celly. Freedom’s 10-4 drubbing left no doubt about their place in the semifinal, where they would face Connecticut’s 2Way.
The semifinal may go down as one of the most entertaining youth lacrosse games those in attendance will ever see. Not only were the stakes high, but it was a dramatic back-and-forth goal-fest which also featured numerous great saves by Freedom’s goalie tandem. The largest lead was when Freedom jumped out 3-1 early, helped by two Taraborelli darts, as he seemed to nearly fully heal overnight, and a tally from Morret.
From there, goals from Olender, Moles, Stukis and two more from Taraborelli helped Freedom keep pace in the lead-trading which lasted the rest of the game. With the score tied 8-8 with under one minute left, no one knew the drama was to be elevated again. Following a Freedom turnover, 2Way raced down the field and scored from the doorstep on a 3-on-1 fast break with six seconds remaining, leaving many in attendance to assume Freedom was out of chances.
Then up stepped the fully-rejuvenated Taraborelli to the faceoff X. At the whistle he won the ball with a brief bobble due to a well-placed check, quickly regained control, and, while still on his own half of the field and facing his own goal, spun and launched a desperation heave with three seconds remaining. The ball sailed high in the air toward the goal, where a defender’s stick deflected it past 2Way’s goalie, who had moved forward to catch it, and it bounced into the goal.
Pandemonium ensued, and after a brief discussion, the referees awarded the goal, confirming a 9-9 tie after regulation and leading to OT. After one unsuccessful Freedom possession, a penalty led to a 2Way man-up, and less than 2 minutes after the OT began, it ended abruptly with a nice dodge and a point-blank goal for 2Way, ending Freedom’s championship dreams as well as one of the most dramatic finishes to a game imaginable.
Freedom LWSC Results
Pool Game 1: Freedom 6-5 Orange Crush
Pool Game 2: Freedom 7-6 Boston Blue Jays
Pool Game 3: Freedom 8-5 Evolve Elite (Canada)
Pool Game 4: Freedom 7-3 True Illinois
Quarterfinal: Freedom 10-4 Kings
Semifinal (OT): Freedom 9-10 2Way
Freedom LWSC Roster
1 Max Teti
2 Griffin Huber
6 Philip Paoletti
7 Luca Romano
8 Ben Nowland
9 Jake Brady
11 Paul Taraborelli
12 Grady Topf
13 Kahsai Turpin
14 Owen Morret
15 Michael Olender
16 Henry Ingersoll
17 Tyler Stukis
19 Evan Adams
20 Gavin Brandt
21 Manny Strid
25 Liam Murray
27 Will Caputo
28 Davis Kopp
32 Connor Moles
66 Bryce Chekemian
77 Ryan Williams
00 Josh Logan
Coaches
Nick Taraborelli – Head Coach
Bob Miller – Offensive Coach
Chris Teti – Defensive Coach
