Ireland Lacrosse Match 5

 

Ireland 7

Canada 17

Eoin Horkan

UL Sports Field

 

Having won their  opening four games in the tournament the Irish U21 team were defeated by 10 goals by Canada who are one of the tournament favourites

With a strong home crowd in attendance, it was the Irish who netted first as Liam Horkan fed Conor Foley who rattled the back of the net inside the opening minute. This lead didn’t last long unfortunately as Canada won the face off and drove forward to level the tie with four minutes gone. Ireland took the lead again with nine minutes left in the quarter as Foley finished off a solo effort of his own. It was two minutes later when Canada levelled the tie for a second time. With five minutes left in the quarter Canada started to pile the pressure on a great Irish defensive effort. This pressure led to three more goals by the end of the opening quarter.

Ireland was finding difficult to win any face off’s leading to sustained attacks by the Canadian offence. These attacks led to two more goals from the Canadians. Ireland defence then manged to hold the dangerous Canadians at bay with Joe Walsh making some great saved. With three minutes left in the quarter Foley managed to complete his hattrick before Kevin Somerville added a fourth goal for a  defiant Irish team. The last goal before halftime came from Canada leaving four between the sides at the break.

 

The Canadians started to move away in the third quarter as they netted five goals in a row before Aidan Dempsey stopped the onslaught with a break away goal. With thirty seconds left in the quarter the Canadians netted again as they went nine goals up with a strong third quarter performance.

The final quarter was a much tighter affair as Somerville added a second goal to his tally before Canada responded minutes later. Ireland’s final goal of the game came from Jack Doherty with a long range effort. Canada netted two more goals before the final whistle.

This was a very respectable performance from the Irish side against a much tougher opponent.

Ireland will face Germany at lunchtime tomorrow as they look to gain the highest ranking they can.

 

Ireland: Conor Breen; Matthew Brennan, Ben Collins , Gavin Conlan; Finn Daly. Aidan Dempsey, Jack Doherty, Conor Foley, Jack Galvin, Joseph Gehle Sean Horkan, Liam Horkan, Ridley Horton, Aedan Kearns, Fionn Kinsella , Matt Loftus, Sean Loftus, Patrick McKee, Brady Morin, Kevin Somerville, Michael Songer, Jack Songer, Joe Walsh, Ronan Walsh.