Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 9/4/17
From US Lacrosse
The veteran-laden Blue squad defeated the White squad 16-13 on Sunday at US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, MD as the U.S. Men’s National Training Team completed another weekend of preparing for next summer’s Federation of International Lacrosse Men’s World Championship.
The Blue team featured seven members of the 2014 U.S. men’s team, including returning All-World honorees Tucker Durkin (La Salle, Bryn Athyn coach, Duke’s LC coach), Rob Pannell and Paul Rabil, but it was the White team, which featured recent college stars like Myles Jones, Connor Kelly and Dylan Molloy that got off to a fast start.
After a nifty finish by Matt Danowski on a feed from Ned Crotty gave the Blue team the first goal of the game, the White team scored the game’s next four goals and the sharp shooting of Ryan Brown had the White in front 9-6 at halftime. Brown scored three times in the opening half.
After the Blue team scored the first two goals of the second half to cut the lead to 9-8, Brown connected on his fourth of the game to put the White team up 10-8. The Blue team then closed the quarter on a 4-1 run, with Rob Pannell coming from behind the cage to wrap in a lefty shot with 1:10 left in the quarter to put Blue up for good at 12-11.
Jordan Wolf (Lower Merion) had a pair of fourth quarter tallies to help ice the game for the Blue team.
With faceoff specialists Brendan Fowler and Joe Nardella both out with injuries, the trio of Trevor Baptiste, Greg Gurenlian (Springfield-Delco) and Tom Kelly rotated among the two teams with Gurenlian winning 11-of-19, Baptiste winning 12-of-21 and Kelly winning 9-of-22. Longpole C.J. Costabile also faced off and won 1-of-4.
Three other players were also unavailable for the exhibition. Two-time reigning Major League Lacrosse Most Valuable Player Tom Schreiber (Princeton) was injured Saturday during practice and did not play. Goalie Drew Adams (Springfield-Delco) and attackman Ben Reeves missed the event due to family commitments.
With Adams out, Brian Phipps rotated between both teams in goal, making three saves. Jack Kelly closed the game for the Blue team, making nine saves while allowing eight goals over the final two and half quarters. John Galloway started for the White team and made nine saves while allowing nine goals before giving way to Phipps in the second half.
Brown’s four goals led all scorers on the afternoon and Connor Kelly also had three scores for the White team. Connor Buczek had a goal and two assists.
Marcus Holman had a team-high six points for the Blue team, scoring two goals to go along with a game-high four assists. Crotty led the Blue team with three goals and had an assist while Pannell and Rabil each had two goals and one assist.
The next action for the U.S. team will be the weekend of October 6-9 for the Team USA Fall Classic, which will also be held at US Lacrosse headquarters. The schedule for that event will be announced in the near future.
The U.S. will have another training weekend in January before next summer’s FIL Men’s World Championship in Netanya, Israel from July 12-21, 2018. Since 1967, the U.S. has won gold or silver medal at every men’s international world championship in field lacrosse. The U.S. won gold in 1967, 1974, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2010. The U.S. finished as the runner-up to Canada in 1978, 2006 and 2014.
WHITE 4 5 2 2 -13
BLUE 4 2 6 4 -16
WHITE SCORING: GOALS: Ryan Brown 4; Connor Kelly 3; Connor Buczek 1; Dylan Molloy 1; Jake Froccaro 1; Will Manny 1; Myles Jones 1; Matt Abbott 1. ASSISTS: Connor Buczek 2; Jake Froccaro 1; Matt Kavanagh 1; JoJo Marasco 1; Dylan Molloy 1; Scott Ratliff 1.
BLUE SCORING: GOALS: Ned Crotty 3; Marcus Holman 2; Rob Pannell 2; Drew Snider 2; Jordan Wolf 2; Paul Rabil 1; Joe Walters 1; Mike Chanenchuk 1; Matt Danowski 1; John Haus 1. ASSISTS: Marcus Holman 4; Paul Rabil 2; Mike Chanenchuk 1; Ned Crotty 1; Rob Pannell 1; Joe Walters 1.
Penalties – WHITE 0/0:00; BLUE 1/0:30.
30-second Goals/Warnings (Violations) – WHITE 0/0 (0); BLUE 0/0 (0).
Officials: Matt Davis; Nick Schmidt; John Oshner; Dale Hall; Bill Dougherty. Exhibition game for 2018 U.S. Men’s Training Team