SAN DIEGO — Tewaaraton Award winner Brennan O’Neill scored three goals in his U.S. senior team debut Wednesday, leading the host Americans to a 7-5 victory over rival Canada in the World Lacrosse Men’s Championship opener at Snapdragon Stadium.
A rising senior at Duke, O’Neill is the lone current college player on the 23-player roster. The 21-year-old who starred last summer for the gold medal-winning U.S. U21 team is the youngest player to suit up for the senior team since the U.S. took a team comprised largely of collegians to Australia in 2002.
“We want him to know that he is supposed to be here,” said Rob Pannell, a three-time U.S. team member and the oldest player on this squad. “He is meant to be here. He was chosen to be here. You saw why tonight.”
Pannell assisted O’Neill’s lefty stepdown from deep to tie the game at 4 with 1:20 left in the second quarter, the momentum from which carried over into the third quarter. The U.S. blanked Canada during the frame and pulled ahead 7-4 on goals by Charlie Bertrand and Ryan Conrad and then an extra-man tally by O’Neill assisted by Tom Schreiber.
“As you get older, the better the players are around you and the easier it is to play,” said O’Neill, the nation’s leading scorer with 97 points as a junior at Duke this spring. “It’s so fun playing with guys who can pass at any time and are such skilled players. Any time you play with guys that good, it makes it easy for you.”
All seven U.S. goals were scored by players running out of the midfield. O’Neill had three, including a first-quarter goal scored when a pass intended for Michael Sowers went in. Bertrand, Conrad, Sowers and Connor Kelly each scored once. Pannell and Schreiber each finished with two assists.
Trevor Baptiste and TD Ierlan combined to win 13 of 16 faceoffs against Canada’s Justin Inacio, giving the U.S. a possession advantage enhanced further by a 21-7 edge in ground balls and eight Canada penalties.
Canada led 3-2 after the first quarter, as Dhane Smith skipped a backdoor feed from up top to Josh Byrne on the doorstep for a goal with one second left to give the Canadians the advantage.
Both teams committed a pair of turnovers and got into penalty trouble early in the second quarter. The U.S. took advantage when Kelly — coming off a Premier Lacrosse League weekend in which he scored nine points and the game-winning goal for the Waterdogs in a 19-18 win over the Atlas — deposited a pass from Schreiber from the left slot to tie it at 3 apiece at the 8:27 mark.
Canada retook the lead just over three minutes later, however, demonstrating its precision stickwork and ball movement with four quick passes that led to a goal by Clarke Petterson to make it 4-3.
The U.S. responded in the final minutes, converting a turnover by Dyson Williams into the tying goal at the other end as O’Neill buried a lefty stepdown from 15 yards out off a running feed from Pannell with 1:20 left. Sowers narrowly missed giving the U.S. the lead, missing just wide as time expired.
Following a dominant third quarter in which the U.S. won all four faceoffs and outshot Canada 10-3 while building its three-goal lead, goalie Blaze Riorden and special teams helped seal the win in the fourth.
The U.S. went two men down with concurrent penalties by Liam Byrnes and Zach Goodrich. Playing in relief of starter Jack Kelly in the second half, Riorden made a sprawling body save on Smith and defensemen Matt Dunn and Jack Rowlett deflected two additional shots as the U.S. came away unscathed.
After Jesse Bernhardt stripped Jeff Teat of the ball with 12:12 remaining, Danny Logan came up with it and the U.S. possessed the ball for nearly four minutes. Another nearly six-minute-long possession sealed it late. By the time Byrne buried a man-up goal to make it 7-5, there were just 20 seconds left.
Byrne finished with two goals and two assists, Petterson had a pair of tallies and Teat had two assists in the loss for Canada (0-1).
The U.S. (1-0) has the day off Thursday and will resume pool play Friday against Australia (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, ESPN+).
