OSHAWA, Ontario — Sixes lacrosse can change on a dime, and that’s exactly what happened as the U.S. beat Canada 12-11 to win the Pan-American Sixes Lacrosse Championship on Sunday, its first win over Canada in the sixes discipline since 2021.
Canada had taken an 11-10 lead with 1:55 to play as Tanner Cook and Ian MacKay worked a perfect two-man game and MacKay scored the go-ahead goal. After the teams traded empty possessions, Canada had a breakaway with under a minute to go and a chance to go up by two to put the game away.
Instead, Liam Entenmann made a big save and got run over on the play. The U.S. took it back the other way and Coulter Mackesy scored the game-tying goal. A delayed penalty following the Entenmann save gave the ball back to the U.S. on an extra man opportunity.
The U.S. called timeout to set up its final play and though the initial looks didn’t work, Pat Kavanagh buried an outside shot from out front with just 1.5 seconds left to give the U.S. the victory.
“We knew it was going to be a battle and obviously they’ve had our number,” Kavanagh said. “They’ve had every country in the world’s number in the sixes discipline — it’s more of a box lacrosse format. We knew we were fighting an uphill battle, but we’re trying to come together off the field, building that chemistry and stick together and just keep building on what the coaches are preaching.”
U.S. head coach Andy Shay was elated with the result straight up, but also as a reward for the work the players have been putting in. The team spent three days in Buffalo in a training camp with 24 players and then brought 12 over the border to play in the continental qualifier.
“I kept thinking this morning you get what you deserve,” Shay said. “You don’t deserve necessarily to win, but I just wanted them to win because those guys in Buffalo and these guys and really everybody in the player pool has been working their tail off, and people behind the scenes are doing so many things to move this thing forward. I just hope a lot of people can share in this. This is a good win.”
Canada beat the U.S. in two sixes events in 2025 — the Atlas Cup at USA Lacrosse and here in Oshawa for the World Lacrosse Super Sixes event. They’ll meet again two more times this year — at the Atlas Cup in October and at the Global Lacrosse Games in December. This result will help raise the stakes of those events.
On Sunday, the U.S. led for just 1.5 seconds out of the 32 minutes, but didn’t let Canada pull away as it struggled to find its offensive footing. Canada led 4-1 early in the second quarter, but the U.S. scored three straight goals to tie the game and never got down by more than two goals the rest of the way.
The U.S. was not credited with any assists in the game, but spread the wealth offensively with Joey Spallina pacing the team with three goals. Kavanagh, Michael Sowers and Mikey Weisshaar each added two goals.
Spallina, playing sixes for the first time, led the tournament with 18 goals and 30 points. He was named to the all-tournament team alongside Sowers, who had 21 points on 11 goals and 10 assists.
Logan McNaney went the first half in goal and made five saves while Entenmann made four in the second half.
Willem Firth, MacKay and Finn Thompson each had two goals for Canada while Brett Dobson (10) and Dillon Ward (9) combined to make 19 saves.
