BALTIMORE — Marcus Holman has made his mark in field lacrosse — the former North Carolina All-American was recently named to the U.S. team that will compete in this summer's world championship in Israel. It was his second U.S. outdoor team, and last summer he earned All-Major League Lacrosse honors after leading Ohio to the league championship.
Conversely, his box lacrosse career consists of just two training camps in the National Lacrosse League and helping the U.S. team win bronze at the 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship (WILC).
Even so, that limited background makes him somewhat of a veteran that U.S. indoor head coach Regy Thorpe can turn to as he tries to build a team that can challenge favorites Canada and the Iroquois Nationals at the 2019 WILC.
On Saturday night, Holman scored three goals, including a key tally in the fourth quarter to lead the White team to a 13-12 victory over the Blue team in a U.S. exhibition before a packed house at the DuBurns Arena.
"I'm trying to learn myself," Holman said. "Every time I play box I enjoy it more and more and I think I learned a little bit more about the game today."
"It was a great atmosphere here with the crowd," said Thorpe, coaching the U.S. for the second time. He made his debut in October, leading his team against Canada in the Heritage Cup.
Thorpe brought 40 players to a whirlwind training camp this weekend, including some playing box for the first time.
"It's a huge commitment," Thorpe said. "These guys getting in on late Friday night, strapping it on for a 7 a.m. practice this morning, go out to LaxCon and meet and greet with the fans and do some demo stuff and come here and play a high intensity game, it takes a lot out of you. I'm really proud of them."
Holman epitomized that commitment. He and Will Manny are both assistant coaches at the University of Utah. They coached on Friday and then flew across the country to be here for the training weekend.
"Every time I get a chance to suit up and play and wear the red, white and blue, it's such an honor," Holman said. "I've been involved with US Lacrosse since the tryouts in 2013 (for the 2014 U.S. men's senior team). There's probably been 15-20 events since then, and I'm grateful for it each time. Lacrosse is in my blood."
After a slow start to the game, the White team poured in six goals in the second quarter to take an 8-5 halftime lead. Blaze Riorden, the former Albany goalie who played forward for the U.S. at the 2015 WILC, scored three of his game-high four goals in the first half to stake the White team to the lead.
The White team opened up a five-goal lead in the second half, and seemed to be in good shape to put the game away after Bill O'Brien picked up a five-minute major penalty for the Blue team with 9:47 to go and the White team up 12-9.
But just 30 seconds into the penalty, Kyle Hartzell scored a short-handed goal for the Blue team to cut the lead to 12-10, and Hartzell had another shot hit off the pipe before the White team finally took advantage of the man-up when Holman buried an outside shot with just 10 seconds remaining in the penalty to put White up 13-10.
The Blue team made a final charge with Nick Mariano scoring off a nice feed from Cody Radziewicz with three minutes to play and Connor Buczek scoring a short-handed goal with 1:15 remaining to cut the score to 13-12. Dylan Donahue, who led the Blue team with three goals, had a final chance to tie it, but Travis Tunstall came up with a save with 28 seconds to play and the White team ran out the clock for the victory.
Score by Quarter
Blue 2-3-3-4 — 12
White 2-6-3-2 — 13
Blue Goals: Dylan Donahue 3, Kyle Hartzell 2, Will Manny 1, Dylan Maltz 1, Dylan Molloy 1, Adam Osika 1, Drew Snider 1, Nick Mariano 1, Connor Buczek 1.
Blue Assists: Davey Emala 3, Dylan Molloy 1, Dylan Maltz 1, Cody Radziewicz 1.
White Goals: Blaze Riorden 4, Marcus Holman 3, Marty Bowes 2, Roy Colsey 1, Tim Barber 1, Joe Fletcher 1, Myles Jones 1.
White Assists: Rob Pannell 3, Scott Ratliff 2, JoJo Marasco 2, Roy Colsey 1, Marcus Holman 1, Matt Dunn 1.
Blue Faceoffs: Brendan Fowler (14-of-28), Cody Radziewicz (0-of-1)
White Faceoffs: Anthony Kelly (7-of-11), Drew Simoneau (8-of-18)
Blue Goaltending
David Mather - 18:46, 10 saves, 3 GA
Chris Collins - 21:14, 10 saves, 8 GA
Stefan Schroeder: 20 min, 11 saves, 2 GA
White Goaltending
Brandon Miller - 38:22, 25 saves, 6 GA
Travis Tunstall - 22:38, 12 saves, 6 GA