“With 23 different guys and all these
different experiences and programs, it’s given us, as a USA brotherhood, some consistency, and a word bank for us to speak to each other,” Nick Myers said, with “above the line,” for a proper response being one of them. “That’s the challenge, chasing the blueprint, the best version of who we are.”
There was the overarching tone and then the Xs and Os of it. The defense plays with its feet first, meaning good position and no takeaway checks, and communicates through its crease and adjacent slide packages dictated by the situation. On offense, it meant sharing in a 1-3-2 motion offense, when working big- little picks and against a zone defense. “You just rely on your experience and
your leadership,” said U.S. midfielder Ryan Conrad, a rising sophomore at Virginia. “If you do that and you really stick to the game plan, you can really overcome any deficit. That’s what we were able to do.” Penn’s Alex Roesner scored the first two goals of the second half, the second in behind-the-back fashion crashing the right alley. Henningsen, who as a freshman took faceoffs for Maryland in the NCAA title game less than two months earlier, won four straight draws against Ohio State-bound Justin Inacio to help the U.S. cut the lead to 11-8 at the end of the third quarter.
The U.S. did not score through almost the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter and trailed 12-9 after Canadian long-stick midfielder Ryland Rees (Stony Brook) scored with 10:42 left off a ground ball on an initial faceoff win on the wing by Conrad. Inacio won the ensuing faceoff. Time for Plan B. “We went through situations and scenarios, one of which was, ‘If we are losing, we have to be ready to go out and kind of press,’” Nick Myers said. “We did a pretty good job with our short sticks of denying, not allowing them to hold and cycle the ball, which didn’t change the tempo, but definitely created a little bit more scoring. We had a contingency plan that we needed to go to.” Willie Klan, who is transferring to Syracuse after one season at Ohio State, made five fourth-quarter stops, denying the Canadians opportunities to put the game away on a pair of inside finishes. Kelly, the Team USA co-captain and North Carolina rising sophomore, scored against the Canadian zone to make it 12-10. Henningsen win. Simon Mathias, the reigning Ivy League Co-Rookie of the Year at Penn, buzzed a skip feed to Mac O’Keefe for another goal. 12-11.
laxmagazine.com
Tension builds during opening ceremonies of the FIL U19 World Championship, after which the U.S. defeated Canada 12-5 in the opener.
Jared Bernhardt, the tournament’s top scoring midfielder and MVP, uncorks a shot during a 17-3 round-robin victory.
Faceoff man Austin Henningsen fueled Team USA’s comeback from six goals down with a dominant second half in a 13-12 win over Canada in the gold medal game.
September/october 2016 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE
23
©PAUL YATES
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