Cantabene and Team USA Capture World Championship
OWINGS MILLS, Md. - Led by three goals from Paul Rabil and Mike Leveille and 15 saves from Brian Dougherty, the U.S. men's lacrosse team and Stevenson head coach Paul Cantabene captured the 2010 world title with a 12-10 victory over rival Canada in the FIL World Championship gold medal game Saturday before 4,651 fans in Manchester, England.
It was the seventh world championship for the U.S., who finished the tournament with a 6-1 record, avenging a 15-10 loss to Canada in the 2006 title game and a 10-9 loss in divisional play.
Rabil was named MVP of the 2010 FIL World Championship after finishing with 16 goals and nine assists in seven games.
Saturday capped an amazing four-month stretch for Cantabene in which he won a world title as an assistant coach with Team USA and led Stevenson to its first CAC championship in April en route to a school record 19 wins and the Mustangs' second-straight appearance in the NCAA semifinals and a final No. 1 ranking in the USILA Division III poll.
Cantabene was one of four assistant coaches for the U.S., under head coach Mike Pressler of Bryant, including Army's Joe Alberici, the Long Island Lizard's Tony Resch and Stony Brook's Rick Sowell.
An alternate on the 2006 U.S. men's team and widely regarded as one of the greatest face-off specialists of all-time, Cantabene served as the USA's face-off consultant working with Alex Smith.
Cantabene was one of two coaches from the CAC represented at the world championships after Wesley head coach Christian Zwickert was named as the head coach of the newly formed Polish National Team.
Cantabene has 16 years of coaching experience, including 15 of the collegiate level. He spent three seasons as the assistant coach at Johns Hopkins from 1996-98, four of Towson from 1999-2002 and two at Maryland in 2003 and 2004 before coming to Stevenson in 2005.
In six seasons as a college head coach, Cantabene has totaled a 79-27 record while leading the Mustangs to five conference championship games, two NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship appearances, a final ranking of No. 1 in the USILA Division III poll the last two seasons and the 2010 CAC championship.
In its August 2008 issue, Lacrosse Magazine named Cantabene as one of the top 10 players in the history of the MLL. He played six seasons for both the Baltimore Bayhawks and Philadelphia Barrage while also spending 11 seasons in the National Lacrosse League with the Baltimore Thunder, Pittsburgh Crossefire, Washington Power and Philadelphia Wings.
In just six seasons, Cantabene set current MLL records with 1,015 face-off wins and 518 ground balls. He was inducted in the Rochester Chapter of the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2003.
