Best Game Ever? An Oral History of the 1998 World Championship

Twenty years later, the 1998 men’s world championship final between Team USA and Canada remains among the greatest games — and events — in lacrosse history.

“A lot of people think it was the greatest game ever played. It depends on what moments you’re watching. I thought it was for about two and a half quarters.” 

— Bill Tierney, U.S. coach

“I can’t even remember, how far down were they?

—  David Morrow, U.S. defenseman and Warrior founder

“For a while they were calling it the greatest game ever. The comeback. The overtimes and everything else. For me, I remember a loss, and disappointment. To get so close and not get it done, it was disheartening.”

— Gary Gait, Canada midfielder

“Thank God it went the way it was supposed to go.”

— John DeTommaso, U.S. defenseman

“The game was so epic that every so often I’ll throw it on and watch it. There’s a better version than I’ve ever seen online now. It’s pretty unbelievable that it all happened. You’re looking at the score and its 11-2 in the third quarter and you can’t believe how the game could have got to overtime. It was scary and surreal.”

— Mark Millon, U.S. attackman

“It was a hot night in Baltimore, an 8 o’clock game. It was loud. The fans were really into it. It was the end of just a great week and a great tournament. The atmosphere was just unbelievable. Homewood was packed, 10,000 fans, and everybody was chanting ‘U-S-A’ and ‘Ca-na-da’ back and forth. It’s something that, 20 years later, is one of the games that I remember very vividly.”

— Jim O’Hara, game official

“You look back on it, and at the number of Hall of Famers in that game… For us, Pat McCabe, DeTommaso, Brian Voelker, Ryan Wade, myself, Rob Shek, Billy Miller, Casey Powell, Mike Watson, Darren Lowe, Sal LoCascio, Charlie Lockwood, then [for Canada] Gary Gait, Paul Gait, Tom Marechek, and then guys like Brian Dougherty and John Grant Jr. and John Tavares and Jim Veltman, who are also legends in the game. You’re talking close to 20 National Hall of Fame guys.”

— Mark Millon, U.S. attackman

PHOTO BY KEVIN P. TUCKER

“In 1994, Canada didn’t even make the championship game. We played Australia. But they had made a lot of strides and had a bunch of guys who started to understand how to play outdoor.”

— Brian Voelker, U.S. defenseman

“Their lineup was ridiculous. You had both Gaits, John Tavares and John Grant Jr., who was young at the time. But they still at that point were defensively not what they are today. You had a bunch of guys playing defense that weren’t used to playing with a pole.” 

— Bill Tierney, U.S. coach

“Our pool play game was 14-12. We all knew we needed to get off to a good start, and that’s exactly what happened. I scored our first goal. They tried to press out on me, and make it hard for me to get the ball. I flashed out the wing and backdoored my guy. That made it 1-1.”

— Mark Millon, U.S. attackman

“I played in Perth, Australia, in 1990, and Manchester, England, in 1994. But the ’98 venue at Hopkins was the best world games I was involved with. Baltimore is a lacrosse town, and they knew how to put a venue together. It was right next to US Lacrosse headquarters. Everyone stayed in the dorms at Hopkins, right beside PJ’s Pub. But I actually stayed at my house. At the time, and this is pretty crazy, Mark Millon and I lived together in Baltimore. So we were rivals, but good friends. We worked out together a month or two before the world games.”

— Tom Marechek, Canada midfielder

“That’s a funny side story. There was no animosity. We lived a stone’s throw from Boys’ Latin on Lake Avenue. We were there for four years together.”

— Mark Millon, U.S. attackman

“I’d always sleep on their couch. At the time, I didn’t have a lot of money to get hotel rooms so whenever I was in town, playing a club game or something, I stayed with those guys. I had just started up Warrior in 1992.”

— David Morrow, U.S. defenseman and Warrior founder

“We’d all lived in Baltimore and spent a lot of time together. Tom played for the Philadelphia Wings when I was there and Gary and Paul were in and out with the Wings, and all those guys played for Mt. Washington club and Team Toyota. Those [Syracuse] guys whipped up on us [at Hopkins] a bit in college and the ’89 championship game, too.”

— Brian Voelker, U.S. defenseman

“Billy Miller threw it across to me from the point off a faceoff win.”

— Mark Millon, U.S. attackman

“‘This is so boring,’ I thought. We went to the beer tent over on the baseball field outside the stadium. I wasn’t the only one. ‘The world games are over and let’s go enjoy ourselves,’ we thought.”

— Gordon Purdie, Australia midfielder

“I can’t call it the greatest game of all-time. Maybe the most entertaining final in world games history. You can take the first half and the first half of the third quarter and it’s a 10-1, 11-1 and then a 12-2 blowout. I was on the sideline doing the game with Leif Elsmo doing play-by-play for Home Team Sports, the precursor to Comcast. The producers and we were talking, ‘How are we going to keep the audience engaged?’ The game was going nowhere.”

— Quint Kessenich, sideline reporter

"Millon, starts low, shoots high, and beats [Steve] Fannell and Sanderson. It’s 13-4, and this one looks impossible for Canada to overcome. Third goal for Mark Millon."

— Leif Elsmo, play-by-play announcer, Home Team Sports, July 24, 1998

“We had our hopes built up that this was going to be an epic game. But then all of a sudden, one goal, two goals, three goals, this amazing run. Plug in the last 20 minutes, and you’ll love what you see.” 

— Quint Kessenich, sideline reporter

“We had a 12-2 lead at some point in the third quarter. Then it got crazy. We couldn’t do anything. I don’t know why.”

— Bill Tierney, U.S. coach

“We were disheartened by our first half. We were not in sync at all. Some on-the-fly adjustments gave us chance. Myself and Paul moved to attack. Rodney Tapp got hot on the draw. Things started flowing, and we got back in the game. It was crazy.”

— Gary Gait, Canada midfielder

“They had a bunch of transition goals and we probably got a little tight. You get up that much, and it’s almost distracting to have that big a lead. You starting thinking the game might be over. Back then, we were heavily favored. The mindset was, ‘Just don’t blow it.’”

— Jesse Hubbard, U.S. attackman

“Probably the biggest thing that happened to us was Peter Jacobs, our faceoff guy, had faced off for five or six games before that, was kind of out of steam.”

— Bill Tierney, U.S. coach

“Tapp took over that game on faceoffs. Nobody could touch him. Then Paul was scoring, Gary was scoring. We had some big-time goals coming at the end. Chris Gill and Freddy Jenner, guys that never scored, they came through. We all played awesome. And Chris Sanderson, God rest his soul, was unbelievable.”

— Tom Marechek, Canada midfielder

PHOTO BY KEVIN P. TUCKER

“Chris always felt like he never really played to his potential in college at Virginia. He was kind of a fish out of water culturally. There was a layer of insecurity that a lot of people didn’t realize was there both personally and out on the field. All of this came together in ‘98. The coach of the U.S. was Tierney, his nemesis coach — he had lost to Princeton a bunch in college — and he was with this crew of Canadians, with the Gaits and Tavares and his idols. And now he was playing against college teammates. And he got in the world games and played differently than he played at Virginia for all four years. He always said, ‘I just think it’s being with Canadians.’ He was in his element and able to shine. The last game was a complete blockbuster.”

— Brogann Sanderson, Canada goalie Chris Sanderson’s widow

“The momentum swung to where Canada was making all the ground ball plays, and they’re running from defense to offense. They caught magic and the U.S. had no answers. The U.S. suddenly appeared a little on the tired side, and they were reeling.”

— Quint Kessenich, sideline reporter

“We’re fouling, we’re putting them in extra man, and then all of a sudden we can’t win a draw.” 

— John DeTommaso, U.S. defenseman

"Another foul on Team USA and I bet you Bill Tierney hating the defensive checks that get you penalties. … [Jamie] Bowen, far side, fakes it, sneaks it in there to Tavares. That rocket, that goal makes it goal number seven, and there’s life on the Canadian sideline."

— Leif Elsmo, play-by-play announcer

“Everything that could happen, happened. We made bad decisions. And then panic decisions, when it was still a five-goal game.” 

— John DeTommaso, U.S. defenseman

“I’ve never taken a timeout with three or four minutes left in the fourth quarter with a two- or three-goal lead and told the guys not to shoot, and 30 seconds later, [they’re] shooting. It all kind of fell apart, which made it discouraging.”

— Bill Tierney, U.S. coach

“At one point, Billy Miller went to goal where he didn’t really have to toward the end of the game and he went in the crease, and that’s a penalty with international rules, so they went a man-down. I can remember somebody yelling, ‘Get him over here and get his equipment off,’ or something like that.”

— Jim O’Hara, Game official

“Paul Gait gets the faceoff from a dominant Rodney Tapp. Tied up and ball loose, still loose. Gary Gait comes up with it, far side, picked out in mid-air, and Tavares scores! Unbelievable handle by Tavares. He went up to the sky to pull down that pass, and gets Canada’s 10th goal.”

— Leif Elsmo, Play-by-play announcer

“Every time the Gaits crossed the mid-line they were looking to score. They were in their prime. They led the charge and helped take over.” 

— Casey Powell, U.S. attackman

“Whatever the amount of time was on the actual clock, it felt like it was seconds. You couldn’t believe how fast this thing was going. Always thinking, there’s no way. There’s just not enough time. With the stage it was on, and the way the comeback happened, it almost looked like it was fixed.”  

— Mark Millon, U.S. attackman

“Whatever we did as a defense, they were just one step ahead. They buried opportunities, threw skip passes and made crazy plays to get them back into it. We were all scratching our heads trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding.”

— Brian Voelker, U.S. defenseman

“The sideline was crazy, absolutely crazy. I can remember Coach Tierney yelling at me, ‘What the hell is going on out there?’ Coach, you got to ask your players. It was wild.”

— Jim O’Hara, game official

"Paul Gait will have to get a shot off here… Looking inside for help. Power move. Behind the back, far side, and easy goal! Left side of Sal LoCascio and it’s a one-goal game and with 35 seconds left. Eight straight for Canada."

— Leif Elsmo, play-by-play announcer

"A valiant bunch of Canadians scared the daylights out of the Americans, coming back from an 11-1 deficit in the third quarter to score nine times in the last 15 minutes of regulation. In the final seconds, Gary Gait & Co. tied the score at 13-all."

— Bill Tanton, What a Finish!, Lacrosse Magazine, September/October 1998

"Looks like it’s going to be Ryan Wade on the faceoff ... He gets a good look, but Veltman comes up with it. He gives it back to Tapp. Nobody in front of him. Looking for help. A shot, and a goal! The game is tied with 23 seconds left. It’s 13-13! The Canadians have done the impossible."

— Leif Elsmo, play-by-play announcer

"Pauly Gait just lets a laser go."

— Quint Kessenich, sideline reporter

“I was sitting with the Canadians and they were shocked. They couldn’t believe what was happening. It was magic. These guys were box lacrosse players. Eventually, I went to stand behind Sal LoCascio, just to get as far away from Chris as possible, because I was being superstitious and thought he didn’t need to see me. There was the group of Canadians hanging out behind him yelling, ‘It’s all your fault, it’s all your fault.’”

— Brogann Sanderson, Canada goalie Chris Sanderson’s widow

“They kept getting one after another and things were going their way, but Sal was awesome in net. Without him, Canada likely would have won that game.” 

— Casey Powell, U.S. attackman

“Steve Toll, one of our fastest players ever, came down with a long pole before regulation ended, and was pretty much on the goal with Sal, and Pat McCabe barely tipped his stick to send the shot wide. That could have been the end of the game right there.”

— Tom Marechek, Canada midfielder

“They came so close to scoring with four or five seconds left. You’re like, ‘Did we almost just lose this in regulation?’ I was just hoping we could get the ball down in our end and just run around a little bit, but it never seemed to happen.”

— Mark Millon, U.S. attackman

“I was trying to hide under the carpet at Hopkins. It looked like we were not being coached very well.” 

— Bill Tierney, U.S. coach

“Dave’s life flashed before his eyes. He tells the story, ‘My whole company was going to disappear if we’re the sponsor of the team and we lose.’ That’s how much pressure was on him and the U.S. team.” 

— Jesse Hubbard, U.S. attackman

PHOTO BY KEVIN P. TUCKER

“So, for me, this game was even more stressful because I had been trying to play and prepare for the world games, while traveling back and forth to Asia to get equipment made for the sponsorship we had with US Lacrosse. I’d started Warrior five years earlier and this was the biggest investment we had made at the time — $250,000 — and we hadn’t made a full line of equipment before. I didn’t even have the money to pay for it, so I got the money by getting credit cards — like from the offers you would get in the mail — and paid US Lacrosse that way. So here I am in personal debt and facing financial ruin and preparing for a world championship, and I had just gotten married. I was on the road for 26 straight weeks before that game. Then, at the start of overtime, our manager [the late] Nolan Rogers says to me, “You won’t be able to sell any of your equipment if we lose this game.” Are you kidding me? I couldn’t believe he said that.”

— David Morrow, U.S. defenseman and Warrior founder

“The overtime was two, four-minute periods, international rules. Everything else is usually sudden death.”

— Tom Marechek, Canada midfielder

“In overtime, I was getting ready to do the faceoff and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Oh baby, here we go.” 

— Jim O’Hara, game official

“We’re adults at that point. I’m 36 years old. I had a family. Guys were from 22- or 23-year-olds. Sal was three or four years younger than me. Zach Colburn was older than me. There was a sense that, ‘All right, this happened. We got away with it at the end. Now, let’s go play. If it’s even, we’re better.’ The better team settled down and made plays to win. Ryan Wade plays hero, and starts winning draws.” 

— John DeTommaso, U.S. defenseman

“It came down to great leaders. I remember Darren Lowe and Mark Millon saying, ‘Don’t worry. If we get the ball, we’ll get this.’ They were two pros that knew what they were doing.” 

— Bill Tierney, U.S. coach

“Everyone had their head down on the sideline during a timeout and I remember Mark saying, ‘I want the ball.’ All right, then. Mark takes the ball off a restart makes a cut, and scores.” 

— David Morrow, U.S. defenseman and Warrior founder

“I had an overwhelming peace about me. I didn’t feel really any nerves. I felt calm, and back then, I was really confident in my game. I was hungry to get the ball and try to make a play for the team. I just took the ball in the corner. Back then, that was my signature, just go downhill and shoot the ball on the run. Fortunately, that one went in. Ryan Wade won a faceoff after my goal, and we got another quick one.”

— Mark Millon, U.S. attackman

"Only 10 seconds later, Ryan Wade won the faceoff…"

— Jamison Hensley, The Baltimore Sun

“By that time, I had pushed my way back in to field level. I’ll never forget it. Wade pushed it for a fast-break, blonde hair and all, North Carolina, and hit Darren Lowe for the winning goal.”

— Gordon Purdie, Australia midfielder

"Canada answered back as Tom Marechek pulled Canada within 15-14 on a left-handed bounce shot with 2:24 left in overtime."

— Jamison Hensley, Baltimore Sun

“Dave pretty much blanketed me all game. He didn’t want me to get open. He did that with me my senior year when he was at Princeton. It was one of those things where I said, ‘I’m going to take this guy.” I’m going to roll around him.”

— Tom Marechek, Canada midfielder

“I played against him all the time in club, for USA in ‘94, every time I played Canada or another team I’m always matched up against him. On that play, I went out and overplayed him and he inside rolled me and scored. I freaked out because I don’t think he’d ever done that to me. He said, ‘I score one time and you’re having a freak out session. I’ve been playing against you for six years.’ For years afterward, I’d bring it up to him that I was so mad. I would have died if that was the play we lost the game on, which we didn’t. It’s funny the things you remember.”

— David Morrow, U.S. defenseman and Warrior founder

“Trailing 15-14 late in overtime, Canada had two final chances to tie the game again.”

— Jamison Hensley, The Baltimore Sun

“Then I hit a pipe, then John Tavares a few seconds later, probably should have passed it over to the other side (with a laugh), missed a shot that Sal smothered. It was an exciting game, and it could have gone either way. That would have been the biggest comeback in lacrosse history, if we won that game, but we didn’t. It is what it is.”

— Tom Marechek, Canada midfielder

“Sal is the best ever, in terms of his saving ability. He was a little unique, he sat back pretty far in the goal. Very vocal, very intense. He was just driven. At a time in the game when things were going off the rails, he held strong and made enough stops late in the game.”

— Quint Kessenich, sideline reporter

“At the end, I felt pure relief. Not any kind of real joy. I never watched that film up until a year ago. I saw the game on YouTube while shooting through recruits. ‘It had been long enough,’ I thought. ‘It’s not going to kill me.’ But it almost did again.”

— Bill Tierney, U.S. coach

“The two worlds before that, we got crushed. This gave us hope. We just wanted another crack at it.”

— Gary Gait, Canada midfielder

“I remember Chris saying to me, ‘It’s bizarre. It’s a silver medal that feels like a gold.’”

— Brogann Sanderson, Canada goalie Chris Sanderson’s widow

“What most people don’t know is that was the game that launched Major League Lacrosse. I had met Jake Steinfeld about two months earlier — he cold-called me after seeing an article on me in a magazine about starting Warrior — and he and Tim Robertston — the three of us started MLL — were in the stands watching that game and saw all the craziness.”

— David Morrow, U.S. defenseman and Warrior founder

“Jake was sitting right behind the bench. I remember looking up and seeing him and thinking, ‘Hey, there’s the guy that likes to lift weights.’”

— Quint Kessenich, sideline reporter

“Me and Tim were sitting at the wall, front row, and the place was packed. A guy sitting next to us had a batting helmet on with two beer cans on either side. There were a lot of people having a lot of fun, young and old, male and female. Kids had their sticks like when you when to a baseball game and you brought your mitt. I hadn’t seen a lacrosse game since the last time I was on a field in November 1977 scrimmaging Syracuse, when I was a faceoff guy at Cortland. Then I went to L.A. and got into bodybuilding. This was overtime, the U.S. versus Canada. The place was going nuts. It was because of that night, we met with Dave at 7:30 the next morning and went forward with what today is Major League Lacrosse.”

— Jake “Body by Jake” Steinfeld, MLL co-founder

“Mark and I had a huge party at our house after the game that night. We had literally every family from the Canadian and the U.S. teams over.”

— Tom Marechek, Canada midfielder

“That was the biggest party we ever had there. There was no bad blood. I think everyone was just in shock. ‘What the heck was that about?’ I don’t think we realized how, 20 years later, how meaningful that game might have been. But now it’s hard to say there are five or maybe 10 games in the history of lacrosse that are better than that one.”

— Mark Millon, U.S. attackman