SAN DIEGO – The Haudenosaunee Nationals jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in their 10-5 win over Japan in the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship at the Sports Deck at San Diego State University. Austin Staats led the offense once again with five goals. Kyle Jackson added two goals and Brendan Bomberry contributed a goal and two assists. Warren Hill had a huge day between the pipes as he finished with 10 saves to backstop another stingy effort by the defense. The game was a rematch from the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Ala., when Japan stunned Haudenosaunee 20-16 in the sixes format, although the Haudenosaunee were missing several key players on that team. Haudenosaunee had that game on their mind and came out focused from the start.

“Everybody played great today. Everyone was spot on with their assignments. Obviously, this was a big one for us, the quarterfinal game,” said goalie Warren Hill after the game. “But, also keeping in the back of our heads that last year these guys beat us in the sixes tournament. So, it was a little bit of extra payback, extra motivation. Everyone played great and it’s a playoff game so that’s what you want…The defense allowed me to see shots I want to see – low percentage shots for Japan. It made my job easier.”

Haudenosaunee won the initial faceoff and worked the ball around until Kyle Jackson back cut and took a short pass from Brendan Bomberry to bury his first goal of the game top shelf. After a big save by Warren Hill, Haudenosaunee went the other way and Austin Staats dunked one home on a spinning post up to make it 2-0 Haudenosaunee. Another Warren Hill save shut down the Japan offense and Austin Staats came off a pick from Eli McLaughlin and used his body to create space out front and fired one home for his second goal of the game. Randy Staats followed on a post-up of his own as he rolled underneath the defense and finished top corner to extend the lead to 4-0 with just under four minutes remaining in the first quarter. A Kyle Jackson holding penalty gave Japan the man advantage and they capitalized on an unassisted goal from Hiroki Kanaya. Another big save from Warren Hill kept Japan off the scoreboard and kept the lead 4-1 at the end of the first quarter.

Haudenosaunee kept the pressure on Japan early in the second as Austin Staats drew a double and dished to Randy Staats behind the net. Randy found a cutting Brendan Bomberry in front of the net who buried a beautiful backhand grounder for his first goal of the day. Japan responded with an unassisted goal from Sota Hakozaki to cut the lead to 5-2 in the second quarter. Austin Staats completed his first half hat trick driving to the net goal-line extended and stuffing it home on the dive to make it 6-2 Haudenosaunee. Austin then took a dead ball from the corner with six seconds remaining and bullied his way to the crease for the dunk to make it 7-2 Haudenosaunee heading into halftime.

Warren Hill had two big saves to stall the Japanese offense early in the third quarter. Then Kyle Jackson found a short stick matchup and beat his man on a stutter step dodge to the right to finish up top to make it 8-2 Haudenosaunee. Jakob Patterson followed up unassisted after he dodged right and spun back towards the middle to bury a grounder for his first goal of the game. Japan fired back as Hakozaki worked behind the net and found a cutting Shinya Tateishi who finished top shelf to shrink the margin to 9-3 Haudenosaunee at the end of the third quarter.

However, Japan had no answer for Austin Staats as he spun away from the slide and finished on the door step for his fifth goal of the game. Japan would respond with back-to-back goals as Tomoki Umehara found Sota Hakozaki in front of the net for his second goal of the game. Hakozaki then found Hiroki Kanaya for his second goal of the game to cut the lead to 10-5 with just under 12 minutes remaining in the game. Japan would get several more shots but the Haudenosaunee defense hung tough to close out the game with the 10-5 victory.

“We really emphasized getting back into our structure early in the tournament…especially on the offensive side – really spreading things out, being more patient,” assistant coach Scott Marr told us after the game. “We knew that they weren’t really going to slide much and so you put a couple of guys on an island and Autie Staats was unbelievable. You just can’t stop the kid. This is my second tour with these guys and I haven’t seen a defensemen in the world yet that can stop him one-on-one. We knew they weren’t going to slide so we went to it. Eventually, they started to slide and we moved the ball. We had a really good recipe for our offense today and they followed it.”

Up next…Haudenosaunee will face the winner of Jamaica and Canada in the semifinals on Thursday, June 29 at 5 p.m. PST/8 p.m. EST at Snapdragon Stadium. The game will be live in ESPN2 and/or can be streamed on ESPN+.

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