Haudenosaunee Nationals Return Home with Bronze Medal

The Haudenosaunee Nationals returned home from the 2022 World Lacrosse Men's U21 games in Limerick, Ireland with a bronze medal.

At the start of the games, a prayer was recited,

"We ask the Creator to watch over these men gathered here during this game so that no harm will come to them.

We ask The Creator to watch over all those who come to enjoy this game of lacrosse.

We ask The Creator, as the games conclude, to safely return all to their homelands, located in each of the four directions of our Iethi'nistenha ohontsia. Toh."

Haudenosaunee teammate Brendan Bomberry stated, "We are not just representing the Haudenosaunee, we are representing all Indigenous people."

The United States captured the gold medal here on August 20th, powering past Canada, 12-10. Earlier in the day, the Haudenosaunee won the bronze medal with a 10-6 victory over Australia.

The United States has now won the gold medal in all nine editions of the men's championship at the junior level, dating back to 1988. The USA squad finished another undefeated tournament as well, going 7-0.

Canada garnered the silver medal for the sixth time in the event.

In the bronze medal game, Trey Deere led the offense for the Haudenosaunee with three goals and an assist, while Gregory Elijah-Brown added a goal and two assists. Midfielder Aidan Fearn recorded a goal and an assist, and importantly won 17 of his 18 face-offs. Goalkeeper Jack VanValkenburgh made eight saves on 14 shots and finished his time in Limerick with 77 total saves, tied for the second-most in the tournament.

The Haudenosaunee started the game on a 6-0 run and never looked back enroute to avenging a 13-7 loss to Australia in pool play. The bronze medal is the Haudenosaunee's fourth in the event and fourth in a row, dating back to 2008.

Japan outlasted England in a 7-6 double overtime thriller to claim fifth place in one of the most dramatic games of the tournament. Japan led 6-3 early in the fourth quarter, but England scored three in a row in the final five minutes to tie the game with the last goal coming with 44 seconds to play.

Japan's fifth place finish tied its best-ever result from 1996, though there were only five teams in that edition. Japan is the first team outside of this year's Pool A teams to finish in the top five of the event since it did so in 1996. It was also Japan's first appearance in this event since 2008.

Ireland closed out its host campaign with a rousing 12-11 comeback win against Puerto Rico to capture seventh place. Ireland led 9-6 with just under 20 minutes to play, but Puerto Rico reeled off a 5-0 run to lead by two with 8:30 remaining. Ireland scored the last three goals of the game, tying the game with 1:32 remaining and landing the final blow just 18 seconds later to secure a 12-11 win.

Puerto Rico finished its first appearance at the event in eighth place.

Jamaica pulled away from Israel with four goals in the last 11 minutes of the game to win 8-4. Jamaica finished ninth in its first ever appearance in the event.

Israel finished 10th in its second appearance in the event.

The Czech Republic staged an improbable comeback to stun Germany, 11-10, in overtime to finish 11th . Germany led 9-7 with under eight minutes to play and after the Czechs rallied to tie the game with five minutes left, Germany took the lead once more with 1:44 remaining. The Czech Republic tied the game with 11 seconds left and went on to win in overtime with a goal from Pavel Srch. Germany finished 12th.

China prevailed 10-9 over Wales in a roller-coaster affair to finish 17th. Wales erased a three-goal deficit in the second half, and twice tied the game after China re-took the lead. After an eight-minute deadlock, China scored the game-winning goal with 33 seconds left on the clock. Wales finished 18th.

Latvia started the day with an 8-6 win over Kenya to claim 19th place. Despite a 4-0 lead from Kenya, Latvia scored the next eight goals of the game. The team finished 20th in its first appearance in the event.