England secured an historic fifth spot with a 14-13 victory over Germany at the inaugural 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships in Utica, New York, USA on Saturday.
Five goals from the ever-dependable Alex Drewe, who finished the tournament as the fifth highest points scorer, as well as an incredible winner two minutes from time from Rosie Bathurst saw England over the line in the fifth-place game.
England couldn’t have asked for a better start as they stormed into a four-goal lead after just two and a half minutes thanks to goals from Lucy Ford, Katie Greenwood, and Alex Drewe (2).
Germany were not to be underestimated, however, and stunned England with five goals in reply from Lisa Neubert, Theresa Geissinger (2), Toni Garbe, and Kim Dressendörfer to see them take a 5-4 lead.
Iandra Lamplugh, one of England’s stand-out performers throughout the competition, halted Germany’s goal rush with a fifth for England but it was the team from mainland Europe who would go in at quarter-time with the lead after two quick-fire goals from Laura Delker and Sinem Ünlü put them 7-5 up.
England started the second quarter quickly with Leah Catton adding her name to the scoresheet after two minutes and, despite an eighth Germany goal through Tessa Helf, England were able to levell up the game with goals from Ellie Racle and Laura Wright.
With five and a half minutes until half-time, Germany pulled themselves back in front at 9-8 through Garbe, which is how it remained until the break.
After a quiet opening 12 minutes of the third quarter that yielded no goals, Helf made England’s job all the more difficult with a 10th and 11th goal for Germany either side of an England goal from Racle before Garbe added a 12th as the third quarter came to an end.
England had it all to do heading into the final 15 minutes three goals down at 12-9 but an exceptional four-goal run that saw strikes from Laura Beaman and three from Drewe helped them into 13-12 lead with five minutes to go.
Five minutes is a long time to hold onto a lead in box lacrosse and Helf levelled up for Germany with her fourth of the game with three and a half to go.
With the game seemingly on a trajectory towards sudden-death over-time, up stepped Bathurst with just over two minutes left to fire a 14th in for England who were able to to defend the lead and take the victory to become the fifth best side in the world and highest ranked European team at the 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships.
England 14-13 Germany (5-6, 3-3, 1-3, 5-1)
England scorers: Alex Drewe (5G, 2A), Laura Beaman (1G, 4A), Iandra Lamplugh (1G, 3A), Lucy Ford (1G, 2A), Ellie Racle (2G), Rosie Bathurst (1G, 1A), Leah Catton (1G, 1A), Katie Greenwood (1G, 1A), Laura Wright (1G), Annabelle Akintoye (1A), Lexi Reynard (1A).