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The Toronto Nationals ended their inaugural season by hoisting the Steinfield Cup.

The Nationals beat the Denver Outlaws 10-9 Sunday afternoon at Annapolis, Md. in front of a crowd of 7,003 to win the Major League Lacrosse title.

Attacker Shawn Williams scored two goals in the last five minutes of play, the championship winner coming with just 45 seconds remaining in the game.

Williams also put the tying goal past Denver goalie Jesse Schwartzman with 4:30 remaining in the fourth quarter with an assist from Jeff Zywicki. Zywicki led all Nats with four points, three of them goals.

Merrick Thompson and John Grant Jr each had two goals for Toronto. Brendan Mundorf had three goals for Denver. Thompson was named MVP of the playoffs.

The final proved to be a seesaw affair with neither team gaining much of an advantage for long.

Nick OHara started of the scoring for Toronto when he scored less than a minute into the game. Josh Sims responded with an unassisted effort past Nats keeper Doc Schneider.

In the second quarter, Denver scored four unanswered goals to pull ahead.
Zywicki finally answered for Toronto to cut the Outlaws lead to 5-4 entering halftime.

Four minutes into the third quarter, Thompson tied the game and the two teams traded goals for the rest of the period.

The Outlaws finally pulled ahead halfway into the fourth quarter when Sims scored his second on the powerplay to give Denver a 9-8 lead and set the stage for Williams’ heroics.

From the moment they kicked off their season at BMO Field in May, it was clear that Toronto was an expansion team only by name.

Much of the roster was made up of last year’s champs, the Rochester Rattlers. When that franchise folded, the players – many of whom are Canadian – decided to move north in the hopes of more glory.

Toronto finished the regular season with seven wins and five losses, second only to Denver.

The Nationals then made the final of the league’s two round playoff tournament by squeaking past the Long Island Lizards in the semi-finals Saturday.