While his teammates celebrated around him, Snake Island Muskies veteran Joe Hall stood, alongside his son, for a post-game interview with Pat Gregoire.
Hall is a legend of the Presidents Cup, competing this year in his 19th tournament. He has won this tournament once before, but not with the Muskies. After years of excruciating losses, he was once again a Presidents Cup champion.
“This is unreal,” said Hall. “This is the best feeling in the world.”
Pat asked whether this was the end of the line for Hall as a player.
“I think that was it… I think that was it,” said Hall.
If this really is the end, it was the sendoff that all athletes dream of. The Muskies are the 2025 Presidents Cup Champions after defeating the Brooklin Merchants 11-5 in the gold medal game. The victory was the first championship for the Muskies.
It capped off an incredible week of lacrosse and a great run for the Muskies, who were undefeated in the tournament.
Let’s take a look at their gold medal game.
Gold Medal Game–Snake Island 11 – Brooklin 5
We knew there would be a first-time champion going into the gold medal game, we just were not sure who it would be.
In a packed and almost sold-out Iroquois Park Sports Centre, the fans came out to see their hometown team have a shot at being crowned national champions. However, it was the Muskies who spoiled the party as they scored not one, not two, not three, but four straight goals to begin the game, with two of them coming from Vaughn Harris, the other two coming from Joey Spallina and Ryan Lanchbury.
With the Muskies up by four, Braedon Saris got Brooklin on the scoreboard as Saris took a pass from Zac Carrigan and fired a shot past Muskies starting goaltender Nick Damude. Down by three with not much time left in the period, the Merchants started to chip away at the Muskies’ lead, but it didn’t work as Skyylar Thomas and Landon Sinfield found the back of the net to see the Snake Island lead grow to 6-1 after the opening 20 minutes.
With the home side down five, they tried to spread the floor more on offence and attempted to limit the Muskies in transition. Brooklin did a good job at getting back on defence and was able to knock down outlet passes to prevent scoring chances, but the offence remained a battle.
They were unable to generate any scoring up front as the Muskies took a page out of the Buffalo Bandits’ book on playing defence as they packed in and at times, had one player in the crease at all times to prevent balls from rolling over the line. Skyylar Thomas scored his second of the game to make it a 7-1 game, but Scott Reed managed to get one back in transition as he went five-hole on Damude. Not long after, Alex Marinier scored to make it 7-3, but that momentum was short-lived as Sinfield notched his second to make the lead even greater and much tougher for the Merchants to come back from.
Parker Pipher was able to find a shooting lane from outside to shine some light onto the Merchants team, who were looking to find any little weakness from the Muskies and exploit it if they wanted to mount a comeback.
Entering the third period, Snake Island held a four-goal lead with 20 minutes that stood between them and a President’s Cup title.
The Muskies used their veteran knowledge and to shut down Brooklin, and they were able to score a couple more goals to build up a lead that was too big for the Merchants to come back from. Zachary Hopps managed to score a goal while Sinfield scored his hat-trick marker, and with Deacan Knott on the bench and Brooklin having an empty net, Matt Acchione picked off a pass, scored on the open cage, and jumped right into the Muskies bench, which cemented a national championship title.
Damude was named the MVP of the tournament after an outstanding week of play.
So, with almost 20 Presidents’ Cups under his belt and two national titles to his name, Joe Hall goes out on top.
Nobody captured the achievement better than Sinfield.
“I cannot believe I got to play with Joe Hall”, said Sinfield after the game.
“He’s such a good guy and a team player,” he continued. “(He is) one heck of a lacrosse player, and he deserves it more than anything, and we’re all so happy for him.”
It’s hard not to be romantic about lacrosse.