England fell to an opening game defeat at the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship as Australia recovered from a slow start to win the Pool A contest 8-4.
England raced into a 3-0 lead and kept Australia scoreless for over 23 minutes, but once the Aussie response came there was no counter, and they racked up eight goals on the spin to turn the match on its head.
A late consolation proved just that with Australia keeper Sean Aaron finishing with 11 saves to earn the plaudits, denying the English attack on multiple occasions who outshot the Aussies 25 to 18 but to no avail.
It was initially the goalie in the England net who made their presence felt with William Baxter making more than one point blank save in early exchanges to render the Aussies impotent and allow the boys in red to build up a healthy lead.
First Tim Collins opened the scoring with a sweet shot on a tight angle before Sean Goldsmith showed expert vision to feed Christian Scarpello free on the crease who made no mistake with some neat handling.
And when Michael Pomfret coolly weaved his way through the Australian defence to score with a bouncer midway through Q2, England were three up and in total control.
England then missed a few chances to go further head as Aaron in net began to assert himself on the game and at the other end with 6:30 in the half Australia finally got their breakthrough courtesy of Connor McDonough.
The momentum then swung rapidly as the Aussies put up two more efforts in the space of four minutes to tie a game at the half in which they had been second best for long periods.
The half-time was a welcome break for England in stemming the Australian tide, however after a quiet start to the third quarter Isaac Cahill and McDonough again both hit within 90 seconds of each other to firmly put their side in the driving seat.
Again, England managed to gain some relative control after the flurry of goals but couldn’t find the score to break the Australian streak with Goldsmith, Nick DeCaprio and Danny Hilditch all having efforts saved by the stubborn Aaron.
The game was then sealed in the space of three minutes in the fourth quarter as Australia scored three more times, demonstrating some ruthless finishing as England struggled for possession.
Goldsmith did finally get on the scoresheet as the clock wound down but the result had already been long settled and despite the lightning start England fell to defeat in San Diego.
England Head Coach, Pat Scarpello, lamented his team’s inability to make their chances pay but backed them to bounce back in the coming games.
“We didn’t finish our opportunities in the first half, we struggled at the face off X, and on the man up we didn’t cash in on any of the chances.
“It’s disappointing but I’m convinced we’re a better squad than that and tomorrow is another opportunity to play to the best of our abilities and there’s plenty of time for us to gel as a team, fix our mistakes and that’s what we’re going to do.”
England are straight back into the action again tomorrow as they take on the Haudenosaunee Nationals at 4pm PDT/12am BST in Pool Play.
Box Score England – Australia: (2-0; 3-3; 3-5; 4-8)
England: Sean Goldsmith (1G 1A), Tim Collins (1G), Michael Pomfret (1G), Christian Scarpello (1G)
Australia: Isaac Cahill (3G), Matt Heuston (2G 1A), Connor McDonough (2G), Matt Wood (1G 1A), Mitchell Baker (1A), Jeff Melsopp (1A)