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US’s lacrosse coach ‘very impressed with Team Jamaica’
August 21, 2026
Seth Tierney, coach of the United States’ (US) lacrosse team, heaped praise on Jamaica’s effort, despite his team coming away 16-2 winners in their Pool A match of the Pan-American Men’s Lacrosse Championship at Stadium East on Wednesday.
Despite the margin of victory, Tierney was thoroughly impressed with the grit, resilience and athleticism shown by the Jamaicans.
“Team Jamaica played their hearts out. It was a well-played game by them. Their goalie (Nate McPeak) made 25 saves. He had a lot of rubber, and he was up for the challenge.
“I was hoping we were going to be challenged tonight, and we were. We are challenged in a lot of different areas. We only opened up towards the end,” he admitted of his team that made it two wins from as many matches.
The Jamaicans, meanwhile, came out of the match with a one-win, one-loss record. Puerto Rico and Colombia both lost their first match.
‘Good direction’
“Jamaica’s lacrosse is moving in a really good direction. I am proud of my guys for the way they handled the adversity. They stayed with it, and ultimately got a double-digit win, which was good,” Tierney observed. “But again, I am very impressed with Team Jamaica.”
Chad Palumbo led the way for the US with four goals, followed by Brian Kelly with a hat-trick, while Aidan Maguire, Ryan Stines and Eric Law scored two each.
Dante Bowen and Karl Robison were the scorers for Jamaica.
Tierney singled out one of Jamaica’s scorers.
“Their faceoff guy (Robison) is a high school player and what he did against two PL (Premier League) guys was awesome,” he observed.
Maguire opened the scoring after only two minutes, and Adam Larkin made it 2-0 eight minutes later, before Maguire made it 3-0 with his second in the 12th minute.
Stines scored his first goal a minute before the end of the first quarter to make it 4-0.
The Americans continued their dominance after the break, with Jackson Eicher making it 5-0 in the 16th minute and Man of the Match Palumbo scoring in the 20th minute to make it 6-0.
Law pushed the score to 7-0 in the 23rd minute, and Palumbo scored a second goal five minutes later to take the score to 8-0 at half-time.
Jamaica competed well in the third period, keeping the US team off the scoreboard for the first nine minutes.
Broke ‘duck’
They even broke their ‘duck’, with Bowen scoring in the 40th minute to make it 8-1.
However, the US responded immediately with goals from Palumbo and Brian Kelly to make it 10-1 at the third interval.
Another Palumbo strike (49th) and goals from Josh Yago and Law in the 52nd and 53rd minutes, respectively, gave the US a 13-1 advantage.
The Jamaicans kept battling and were rewarded with another goal a minute later through Robison, making the score 13-2.
However, Kelly added a quick double, and Stines scored once more to stretch the US’s lead to 16-2.
Jamaica’s coach Mark Wilson acknowledged that it was always going to be a huge challenge, remaining proud of the effort.
He noted that their goal of reaching the World Championship remains intact.
“The main thing is, I am proud of the effort. I thought everybody fought hard from start to finish. There was nobody backing off. The guys supported each other and worked hard,” he said.
“The goal was not to win this particular game, but to qualify for the World Championship in Tokyo.
“We just need to ensure that we are getting better each game, and make sure we are ready to take care of that business.”
