NLL Insider

The Iroquois Nationals captured the bronze medal on Saturday with a 19-10 victory over England. It was the Iroquois second bronze medal at the International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) U-19 Worlds.

“We’re proud to win that game, but we wanted to be in the gold medal game like everyone else,” said Iroquois head coach Tony Gray.

“I thought today’s game we could have sulked about not winning the Canada (semi-final) game, but we re-focused and we came out and we played a really strong game today,” added Gray. “All twenty-two players played together as a team today.”

The Iroquois dropped their semi-contest to Canada yesterday, 23-12, after playing them very tight in their round-robin game, tied 12-12 late in the fourth quarter.

“Playing Canada to get to this game we came out slow and just couldn’t catch up from there,” said attackman Peter Jacobs, who also plays professionally in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). “We’re happy to bring home a medal at least”

“We said people aren’t going to remember your first seven games, they’re going to remember your last game,” added Gray. “They came out and I think they did a remarkable job today to win the bronze medal so we’re excited about that.”

The Iroquois Nationals also captured the bronze in 1999 with a win over England. They finished fourth at the prior U-19 Worlds.

Emmett Printup - who is headed to Onondaga Community College (OCC) then hoping to transfer to Syracuse - was again a standout for the Iroquois, scoring a game-high six goals to finish the tourney with 33 tallies in eight games. Miles Thompson and Peter Jacobs finished second and third in team scoring with 25 and 21 goals respectively.

“It’s been amazing,” said Printup of the experience. “It’s just been real fun hanging out with these guys and playing all of these teams has been amazing.”

The game was closer than the final indicates. The Iroquois led 3-1 after the first-quarter and 8-4 at the half, with Guy Zac scoring a team high three goals in the second-quarter.

The Iroquois then outscored England 3-2 in the third-quarter before pouring in eight goals in the fourth-quarter to take the win, 19-10.

Sam Russell had two goals in the bronze medal game and led England in the tournament with 19 goals in eight games.

“It was a disappointing end obviously with the result today, but the performances overall have been hugely encouraging, hugely positive and sort of justification for the hard-work and training we’ve put in through the past eighteen months or so,” added England head coach Tom Wenham.

The United States captured the gold medal with a convincing 19-12 victory over Canada.

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