Three Peterborough Lakers Capture Gold at World Lacrosse Box Championship

Peterborough Lakers’s Matt Gilray, Jake Withers and Zach Currier helped Team Canada defend their title by winning the men’s World Lacrosse Box Championship and a gold medal, defeating Team USA 13-7 at the Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, N.Y. on Sunday evening.

(From left to right) Matt Gilray, Jake Withers and Zach Currier. Team Canada remains undefeated throughout the entire tournament’s history. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Team Canada outlasted 27 other teams en route to a sixth-straight championship. Canada was ranked number one heading into the tournament. They were placed in ‘Pool A’ against the following three top-ranked teams: Haudenosaunee, USA and England, respectively.

They handily defeated England on their first day of action on the 21st, 19-4 at the Utica University Nexus Center. The following day, Canada was victorious again, beating Haudenosaunee in a close game, 13-10 at the Adirondack Bank Center.

They capped off their pool play by beating their rivals, the USA, 14-10, at the Mary C. Winder Community Center at the Oneida Indian Nation. According to World Lacrosse, it had been almost a decade since the international lacrosse game was held on native land.

After being undefeated for three straight games, Canada was named the number one seed and advanced to the quarterfinals. They drew Japan and routed them 22-4 on Thursday.

Canada met a familiar foe in England in a rematch in the semifinals and achieved a better result, winning 20-3 to advance to the finals.

The win saw a longstanding rivalry for the finals, as Canada had a rematch against the USA for the championship. Fellow Lakers Joe Resetarits and Drew Hutchinson played for the Americans as foes in the final matchup of the tournament.

Canada scored three straight goals to begin the game. USA was able to claw back, making it a one-goal deficit at the half. Canada held a 4-3 lead into the half.

Coming out of the half, the Canadians went on a six-goal run to pull away from the USA. While the Americans played valiantly, Canada had another three-goal run after allowing two consecutive goals to pull away 13-5. USA tacked on two late goals, but it was too little, too late and Canada remained undefeated to capture the world championship title.

Currier scored one goal in the championship, his third in the tournament. With Gilray and Withers not registering a point in the finals, the former had three goals and one assist in the tournament while defenceman Withers scored one goal overall.

Peterborough’s Erica Evans played for Team Canada in the first-ever Women’s World Lacrosse Box Championship and her team’s undefeated run ended in the gold medal game. They lost 10-7 after USA had a five-goal run in a comeback after being down 7-5 almost halfway through the fourth quarter.

Evans was also named to the inaugural Women's All-World Team.

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