No. 2 Canada held off No. 3 Haudenosaunee in a wire-to-wire 12-7 win in the semifinals at Snapdragon Stadium on Thursday at the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship.
Canada will play in its sixth consecutive championship game and will finish in the top two in the event for the 10th time in its 14 appearances. Canada will face its rival the United States in the final on Saturday at 4 p.m. PT at Snapdragon Stadium.
“You go through this ten-day tournament and all you try to do is build your team and chemistry,” said Dyson Williams. “Game one was a tough result for us but ever since then we’ve been working towards getting back to the gold medal game. Now that we’ve accomplished that we’re looking forward to our one game left.”
Canada’s balanced attack was too much for the Haudenosaunee defense to handle with five different players recording multi-point efforts. Dhane Smith had three goals and an assist and Dyson Williams had three goals.
Goalkeeper Dillon Ward was outstanding against the Haudenosaunee’s usually excellent shotmaking, and he made 11 saves on 18 shots faced.
Jake Withers and Justin Inacio dominated on face-offs to help Canada control the game with a combined 17-23 rate.
The Canada defense limited the Haudenosaunee for most of the game until a four-goal fourth quarter – Austin Staats still found his way to four goals and an assist by the end of the game.
