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Canada was about to become the first team to ever defeat the United States in U-19 World Field Lacrosse Championship play, up 14-7 headed into the fourth quarter. But the United States stormed back with a 8-1 fourth quarter to force overtime and come away with a 16-15 victory.

“It was one of the best games I’ve ever been a part of, it’s a good feeling,” said Craig Dowd, who led the US with five goals in the fourth quarter. “We just kept on coming together as a team and we never gave up.”

“I think it’s just a wonderful team effort,” added John Lade, who was matched up with Canada’s speedy attackman Mark Cockerton. “I think it helped us really come together and gel.”

With the win, the United States remain unbeaten all-time in U-19 play.

“The streak is something special in itself, but that’s not what’s on these guys’ mind. We have one thing on our mind, and that’s a gold medal,” added Dowd.

The United States will now take the No. 1 seed and a bye into the medal round where they are looking to become six time World U-19 Champions. The USA are winners of all five U-19 titles dating back to 1988; their closest gold medal game a 13-8 win over the Canadians.

“This year in U-19 you can tell the competition has stepped up,” added Dowd. “There’s not going to be an easy game from now on out, so we’re just going to take it one game at a time and hopefully we’ll reach the ultimate goal.”

Canada will likely finish with the No. 2 seed in round-robin play and also earn a bye into the medal rounds which begins on July 8. The International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) final is on Saturday, July 12.

Many are predicting the USA and Canada will meet for a rematch in the final, however, the Iroquois Nationals are an extremely difficult draw, and will likely meet Canada in the semis.

The Iroquois were tied with Canada late in the fourth on Saturday, 12-12, before falling 15-12. They also played the Americans tight in their opening game of the tourney and will likely be the No. 3 seed into the medal round.

Canada outscored the United States 9-3 in the third quarter of their Sunday game to open up a 14-7 lead after three quarters. But undisciplined play by the Canadians opened the door for the USA who started the fourth three man-up.

“It was just a series of mental mistakes we had – those things we can correct,” said Canada head coach Gary Gait. “We have to work on being mentally tough, not just physically tough.”

The US capitalized on the early fourth-quarter man-up, scoring 30 seconds in to start an 8-1 fourth quarter run.

With one minute left and the score 15-14, the USA won a key draw and scored off an outside rip from Craig Dowd to force OT.

After both teams had offensive opportunities in the first overtime half, the United States settled and took a time-out. James Green, who had the game’s first goal, tallied on an outside shot for the game winner.

“We came out of the timeout just wanting to get a nice little possession,” said Green. “I had a short-stick, took a sweep and saw some of the left-side of the net… so I took a go and just stuck one.”

Canada had an opportunity off of a ride with seconds left but Mark Matthews bubbled the ball and could not get a shot off.

The second four-minute half of overtime began with Canada in possession; they held the ball for the majority of the four minutes but could not capitalize. Canadian midfielder Kevin Crowley did ring one off of the pipe with thirty seconds left.

Getting the ball-back off of a turnover, Ramel Bratton was given possession and ran out the rest of the clock for the USA win.

“We come out and we played great and we did what we needed to do, but then we had some mental breakdowns,” added Gait. “We have to be happy with what we saw and who we were, and we’ll go back and work on that (being mentally tough).”

Both goalies played well for their respective nations; Adam Ghitelman had 24 saves for the United States and Remington Steele made 22 for Canada. The US won 16 of 30 draws.

Stay dialed to Inside Lacrosse and the NLL Insider for more great lacrosse action. The U-19 World Field Lacrosse Championships features some of the very best players in the world, and only takes place once every four years.

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