LONDON, Ontario -- Canada has long maintained its equivalency in field lacrosse, but only after Saturday can it claim superiority.
Ending 28 years of futility -- of being on the wrong side of a regulatory stick inspection or crease call, of falling in one-goal affairs, of tirelessly trying to shed the meathead-box-player image held by elitists - the host Canadians shocked the vaunted United States, 15-10, in the gold medal game of the 2006 International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) Championships before an announced 7,735 at rain-soaked TD Waterhouse Stadium.
Geoff Snider, a University of Denver product, won 20 of 28 faceoffs, dominating the U.S. contingent of Doug Shanahan and Kyle Harrison, in earning most valuable player honors.
"I was on Team Canada to do this, to get the ball," Snider said. "It was a role play squad. We specialize."
Specialization is a trend most commonly associated with the U.S. college game, and while Team USA opted to keep arguably the game's best faceoff specialist, Paul Cantabene, only as an alternate, Canada went by way of the one-sided Snider.
"Cantabene is an ambassador for the faceoff `X,' " Snider said. "I would have loved that challenge."
Snider uses a 4-inch-wide head that's customary to box lacrosse and legal by ILF field lacrosse regulations. Standard head width is 7 inches.
While that may have been an edge, his quickness in usurping the ball and flipping it upwards to himself was redundantly apparent.
"It probably would have helped them to have a pure faceoff guy," said Canadian attackman Jeff Zywicki, who led all scorers with five goals and an assist, "but the way Snider was taking faceoffs, he still would have won them...I think we just outworked them."
Team USA failed in its bid for a seventh consecutive ILF championship -- dating back to a 1978 gold medal loss to Canada -- and had its string of 38 consecutive ILF wins snapped.
"It's been 28 years we've been winning this thing," said midfielder Matt Striebel. "You feel like it's a huge responsibility that you've let down. They (the Canadians) played the field game better than they ever have. They really wanted it badly."
"Eh, it just sucks, man," said a disillusioned Casey Powell. "Just a bad game for us. Tough one to take."
With the game starting in a steady downpour, the U.S. held court for the first two quarters, and trailed only when Colin Doyle sliced through the box and stuck a John Grant Jr. feed off a double team to put Canada ahead, 6-5, with 2:10 remaining in the second quarter. It capped a three-goal run that also included two opportunistic finishes by Zywicki.
Jay Jalbert, who in last Sunday's preliminary game against Canada scored the game-winning goal with three seconds remaining, responded less than two minutes into the third quarter with a left-handed shot which splashed off the wet turf and into the net.
With the U.S. defense of captain Pat McCabe, Nicky Polanco and John Gagliardi (all of whom play for the MLL's Long Island Lizards) seemingly keeping the Canadians at bay, Scott Urick (three goals) then one-timed a pass from Ryan Powell while getting speared in the shoulder by Taylor Wray, as the Americans regained the lead, 7-6, at the 13:16 mark of the third quarter.
Grant knotted it again, however, skipping a shot between U.S. goalie Chris Garrity's legs at 11:23. Two more Canada goals -- by Gavin Prout and Jordan Hall -- ensued, and the Canadians never again relinquished their long-sought advantage.
Twice more Team USA came within one, lastly on Urick's extra-man goal that made it 10-9 with 16:55 remaining in the fourth quarter. But Gary Gait -- the 38-year-old Gary Gait who was a nonentity in the first three quarters -- wound up with a rebound off a Trevor Tierney save and, before the U.S. defense even noticed, stuffed it for a two-goal lead with 12:52 remaining.
Gait, in reportedly his last game as a player, then took a low bounce off the wing that skipped in for a 12-9 lead with 9:40 left. After the U.S. failed on an ensuing extra-man situation and missed on three scoring chances, Grant added insurance with 3:09 remaining, and Gait fittingly put it out of reach with two more goals in the final three minutes.
Gait finishes a Hall of Fame career in which he joins Team Canada teammate Tom Marechek as the only players to win NCAA, MLL, NLL and ILF championships. Marechek, who sat the entire preliminary round and in Canada's semifinal victory over the Iroquois Nationals, played sparingly Saturday.
