Iroquois Nationals Win Bronze at U19 World Lacrosse Championships

Greg Horn in Entertainment. Discussion »

TURKU, FINLAND – The Iroquois Nationals are coming home from the U19 World Lacrosse Championships in Turku, Finland with a bronze medal. The Bronze Medal game was a rematch of the Iroquois Nationals' opening game of the tournament where they trounced England 24-2. This time around the Nationals downed England by a score of 18-1.

Iroquois Nationals Defeat Win Bronze at U19 World Lacrosse Championships

Kahnawake's Hank Delisle opened the scoring at 6:12 of the first quarter to give the Iroquois Nationals a 1-0 lead. At 9:01 Seth Oakes (Randy Staats) gave the Iroquois Nationals a 2-0 lead. Johnny Powless (Staats) made it 3-0 at 15:07. Frank Brown and Delisle would make it 5-0 to close out the first quarter.

The Iroquois Nationals dominance would continue into the second quarter Brown (Delisle) would extend the Nationals lead to 6-0 at 1:05 of the quarter. Staats (Brown) made it 7-0 at 2:57. Quinn Powless (Brendan Bomberry) and Oakes would each score at 15:59 and 18:14 to make it 9-0 by the end of the first half.

In the third quarter the Iroquois Nationals would get goals from Orris Edwards (2), Brown, Zach Miller and Staats to extend their lead to 14-0. Lyle Thompson made it 15-0 at 3:07 of the fourth quarter. Ryan Hunns would stop the bleeding and give England their lone goal of the game at 5:08 of the fourth quarter on a powerplay. Powless would then make it 16-1 at the 6:59 mark of the fourth quarter. Thompson made it 17-1 at 11:59 and Brown (Staats) would core the Nationals final goal of the tournament at 14:38 to make it 18-1.

The United States downed Canada 10-8 to win the gold medal. The US made it to the gold medal game by downing the Iroquois Nationals in the semifinals 12-7. The Iroquois Nationals defeated the Americans 15-13 in the final game of the round robin portion of the tournament. This win was the first by a Iroquois Nationals squad over the US in any level of international field lacrosse.

Greg Horn is a Mohawk journalist/photojournalist from Kahnawake. Horn owns and operates an online newspaper based in Kahnawake called Iorìwase www.kahnawakenews.com and has 15 years experience in print, radio and television news. Horn primarily works on issues that affect the Mohawks of Kahnawake and the rest of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy).

posted July 21, 2012 8:10 pm edt