Haudenosaunee defeats Australia 10-6 in final game of pool play at the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship

SAN DIEGO – The Haudenosaunee Nationals defeated Australia 10-6 in their final game of pool play at the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championships at Torero Stadium at the University of San Diego. Eli McLaughlin and Kyle Jackson both finished with hat tricks to lead the offense. Randy Staats added a goal and two assists. Warren Hill finished with five saves. The game was rough from the get go and featured 16 penalties between the two teams.  

Hear from Kyle Jackson after his hat trick helped Haudenosaunee defeat Australia 10-6.

Haudenosaunee jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after Eli McLaughlin scored his first goal of the tournament on a Zed Williams assist with the Nationals up on the man advantage. Kyle Jackson followed up with a diving shot after beating his man to the right. Australia would respond with a Brayden Panting goal on the man advantage to cut the lead to 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.

Australia would strike first in the second quarter as they tied the game on a Connor McDonogh spin move towards the goal and a diving score. Then after a save by Warren Hill, Brayden Panting recovered the ball and drove the middle to bury one high and give Australia the 3-2 lead. Australia gained a two man advantage but Haudenosaunee was able to kill the penalty on a huge mid-air steal from Jake Piseno. A holding penalty on Australia gave Haudenosaunee the man advantage with just under four minutes remaining in the half. Eli McLaughlin’s second goal of the game tied it at 3-3 on an Austin Staats feed from behind the net. Two minutes later Randy Staats got on the board driving through the lane and using a few ball fakes to put it away in the top right corner and give Haudenosaunee the lead back 4-3 heading into halftime.

Randy Staats scores his first goal of the game against Australia.

Photo by David Tiger-Cortes

Kyle Jackson got his second goal to start the second half as he was found open by Randy Staats from the left side. Three minutes later Lyle Thompson scored his lone goal of the game in transition as Jake Piseno pushed the pace up field to find Thompson open on the left side who sniped his ninth goal of the tournament to extend the Haudenosaune lead to 6-3. Australia would bounce back with a 3-0 run of their own to tie the game. Jeff Melsopp fired top right corner just after an Australia man advantage expired. After another Haudenosaunee penalty Matt Wood scored up two men to cut the lead to one. Then Lachlan Walker wrapped around the left side for his lone goal to tie the game 6-6 with under five minutes to play in the third. A big Warren Hill save got Haudenosaunee in transition as he outlet to Kyle Jackson who pushed the pace into the offensive and found Piseno on the left side. Piseno then found Hiana Thompson cutting down the middle who rifled his first goal of the tournament on a pole to pole highlight reel to regain the lead 7-6 entering the fourth quarter.

Warren Hill had several big saves to help Haudenosaunee hold off Australia.

Photo by David Tiger-Cortes

Haudenosaunee started the fourth with a man advantage and Eli McLaughlin took advantage with his hat trick goal on a Randy Staats behind the back pass to make it 8-6 Haudenosaunee. A few Australia penalties gave Haudenosaunee several chances. Zach Miller drove middle and dished out to Kyle Jackson who buried it low for his hat trick. Brendan Bomberry rang the pipe to round out the scoring with eight seconds left in the game and give the Nationals a 10-6 win.

Assistant Coach Vince Longboat joined us after the Haudenosaunee defeats Australia 10-6 in their final game of Pool A.

After pool play Haudenosaunee earned the 3-seed out of Pool A. They will face the 14-seed Hong Kong in the first game of the medal round at 7 p.m. PST/10 p.m. EST on Tuesday, June 27 at San Diego State University. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.

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