U.S. Men's Sixes Team Wins Shootout Over Great Britain

INDIANAPOLIS — Andy Shay doesn’t like to complain after a nine-goal victory, but he’d feel a little better if his team hadn’t surrendered 17 goals. Such can be the nature of the sixes discipline of the sport, but Shay was overall pleased with a 3-0 weekend for the U.S. men’s team that wrapped up with a 26-17 victory over Great Britain on Saturday night at the USA Lacrosse Experience.

• Box Score

“We’d like some of those possessions back defensively,” said Shay, who began coaching the sixes discipline with the U.S. National Team Program in 2021. “Give Great Britain a lot of credit. They were very disciplined and they moved the ball well. I think when the score got a little higher for us, we started doing a little less of the things that got us to this point. It’s a good lesson. We got it on film, we still got the win and we’re going to regroup as a team and meet about it and show them what we did right. The whole thing, we’re still learning what we want to do. There’s value in this.”

Matt Campbell continued his hot-shooting weekend and paced a potent U.S. offense with five goals, finishing the three-game tournament with a team-best 14 goals. Campbell scored three of the U.S. team’s first four goals and the U.S. never trailed in the game.

Jake Taylor, the lone collegian playing for the U.S. team who was making his national team debut, scored four goals and closed the game with one of his usual highlight goals, this time a one-handed underhand shot in the closing seconds. His former Notre Dame teammate Pat Kavanagh added six points on three goals and three assists.

The U.S. offense also saw hat tricks from Chris Aslanian and T.J. Malone and Grant Ament had a goal and four assists. 

Lyndon Bunio and Daniel Jones put on a show for Great Britain, combining for 11 goals. Bunio scored six times and also had two assists while Jones scored five goals. William Baxter made eight saves while allowing 11 goals.

Puerto Rico 17, Colombia 8

• Box Score

Puerto Rico completed a 2-1 weekend at the USA Lacrosse Experience with a 17-8 victory over Colombia. Puerto Rico’s defense, anchored by goalie Will Mark, held Colombia to just one goal in the first half and then the offense got untracked in second half, scoring 12 times in the final 16 minutes.

Joshua Balcarcel paced the offense with three goals and two assists and Matthew Chlastawa added three goals and an assist. Mark made nine saves to earn the win.

Nicholas Sheedy and Ryan Tabor each scored twice for Colombia and Oscar Andres Cifuentes made eight saves while allowing 11 goals in three quarters of action.