July 7, 2008
Box Score
by Clare Lochary, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
COQUITLAM, B.C.- A day after a roller coaster win over Canada, the U.S chugged along to an easy 24-4 victory Monday over a battered Team England, improving to 5-0 in the 2008 ILF U-19 World Championships and 34-0 in program history.
But everyone's mind still seemed to be focused on Sunday's historic overtime comeback. Team USA erased a seven-goal deficit in the fourth quarter to eventually defeat Canada in overtime.
"We wanted to come out and kind of make a statement after we beat Canada. We kind of wanted everyone to know that as much as we wanted to win that game, and expected to win it, we weren't going to take the next team lightly," said defender Bray Malphrus. "There's a tendency after big wins to lay off the pedal when you come out."
There was no such letdown against England, a dark horse that upset Australia, 12-11, on Saturday. Malphrus and the close defense boxed out the English attack for the entire first half, as Team USA built an 11-0 lead. Attackman Dean Gibbons led all scorers with five goals and three assists, a tournament best for the Harvard sophomore.
England struggled to find its way through the American defense, and didn't score until Zac Guy got off a low bouncer that split goalkeeper Adam Ghitelman's (3 saves) legs at 6:10 in the third quarter.
"They're obviously a lot more drilled than us," said England midfielder Sam Russell, who scored his team's fourth and final goal. "We did make a few silly mistakes, but they were fantastic."
England's troubles began at the 'X,' where U.S. faceoff specialist Matt Dolente won 15 of 18 attempts. England's starting FOGO, Tom Giddings, was injured during the game against Australia, so five different English players matched up against the U.S. with little success, winning just nine of 28 attempts.
In addition to Dolente, three other U.S. players took faceoffs, including longpole C.J. Costabile, who won both of his attempts in the third quarter and scored a fast-break goal off the first one.
Goalkeeper Tyler Fiorito played the first half for the U.S., and made three saves.
Team England goalie Daniel Grimes made 26 saves in the loss, starting in place of Anthony Hayes, who was injured in England's 21-16 loss to the Iroquois on Sunday.
With a 5-0 record, the U.S. has secured the No. 1 seed in the Blue Division and a spot in the semifinals. The Americans will face the winner of the play-in game between the Blue Division's No. 4 seed and the Red Division's No. 1 seed (Germany) Thursday at 4 p.m. Pacific.
