The offense carried a bigger load for the U.S. in the second game between the two teams, and Kirst did most of the early work, scoring all five of his goals in the first half. He also added an assist in the third quarter after Canada began keying on him more.
Brennan O’Neill was also a big force for the U.S. offense, finishing with two goals and an assist, and Kavanagh had two goals and two assists. Hogg led Canada with three goals and Owen Hiltz and Ross Scott each scored twice. Canada had assists on just two of its 10 goals as compared to 7 of 12 for the U.S.
With navy blue hats with gold “World Champs” block letters on their heads and remnants of the netting hanging from their bodies, the U.S. huddled around head coach Nick Myers one last time.
“This is a brotherhood,” Myers said.
He then had one final request of his 23 players. After walking to team dinners, meetings and practices in two orderly lines each day for the past two weeks, enjoying their time together and continuing to build chemistry, he asked them to walk off the field the same way one last time. Ryan Schriber led the way, holding the U.S. flag over his right shoulder as the team walked through the night back to their cottages.
Fittingly, “We Are the Champions” played loudly as they marched.
“We knew Canada was going to test us in a lot of ways, and they certainly did,” Myers said, “but we dug in and found a way to get the job done.”
NOTE: From 1988 through 2016 this championship used the U19 age grouping. World Lacrosse has since reclassified it to a U20 championship moving forward. The 2022 event was given a one-time age exemption to U21 due to postponements from the global pandemic.
Game stats available at: https://www.worldlax2022.com/results