Eight Division Winners and Canada Wins a Wild One
from LaxMagazine.com staff reports
(COMMERCE CITY, CO) Before a packed house of nearly 7,000 spectators, Canada’s Curtis Dickson scored the game-winning goal with 19 seconds left to play to give Canada a 9-8 victory and spoil a wild comeback by the Iroquois Nationals.
Canada led 8-3 late in the third quarter, but the Iroquois Nationals scored five straight goals, tying the game 8-8 on Randy Staats’s goal with 8:19 to play in the game. Staats and Lyle Thompson each had two goals during the scoring run.
Neither team scored again unitl Jeremy Noble found Curtis Dickson to the left of the goal and Dickson wrapped around and sank the game-winner. Dickson led Canada with three goals and Adam Jones had two goals and two assists.
Thompson led the Nationals with three goals and Staats had two.
Both teams are now 2-1, trailing the United States in the Blue Division by a game.
On the adjacent field, Australia outscored England 4-0 in the third quarter to break a 3-3 tie and went on to win 10-7 and improve to 2-1 in the Blue Division.
Anson Carter scored the first two goals of the second half for Australia and his four points led the team with two goals and two assists. Matt Diver and Marty Hyde also had two goals. Samuel Russell and Adrian Bennett each scored twice for England. England was whistled for 14 penalties in the game, but Australia converted just once on extra man opportunities.
Story at WorldLacrosse2014.com: Eight Division Winners and Canada Wins a Wild One
Day 4 Results
Ireland Wins Yellow Division, United States Rolls
Ireland went on an eight-goal run from late in the first quarter until late in the third quarter to pull away from a 4-2 lead and defeat Bermuda 14-5 to win the Yellow Division in a battle of 2-0 teams. Brian Gillis talled six goals for Ireland and Tom Riley dished out five assists to pace Ireland’s offense. Drew Jenkins and Tyler Masters each had two goals for Bermuda.
In the Blue Division opener on Sunday, the United States scored five times in the opening 10 minutes and the first 12 goals of the game to improve to 3-0 with a 21-3 victory over Japan (0-3). Chris Eck (13-of-15) and Greg Gurenlian (10-of-11) were dominant on faceoffs to allow the U.S. to maintain possession and Ned Crotty (4g, 1a), Rob Pannell (1g, 5a) and Brendan Mundorf (3g, 2a) paced a balanced attack that had 10 goal scorers. Jesse Schwartzman made four saves and allowed just one goal before leaving the game in the third quarter with an injury. Drew Adams came on and made six saves while allowing two goals. Wataru Tsugu, Yuji Tadahira and Ryu Matsushita scored for Japan.
Netherlands Wins Green Division
Official word has come from the Federation of International Lacrosse and the Netherlands takes the top spot in the Green Division by virtue of goal differential in the tie-breaker over Italy and Norway. The Netherlands beat Italy 14-8 and lost to Norway 12-11 in overtime. Italy beat Norway 14-9 in the other game.
The Netherlands had a plus-five goal differential, Italy had a minus-one and Norway had a minus-four.
Earlier in the afternoon, Norway beat China 20-3 and Turkey beat Costa Rica 11-2.
Norway fired 62 shots against China with Aksel Kvaal finding the back of the net four times and Spieler Palmers adding three. Thomas Laycock added a goal and four assists. Tyler Buchan had two goals for China and Harrison Zhu continued his fine tournament, making 19 saves while allowing 15 goals.
Tyler Rinko had three goals and three assists and Bijan Firouzan had two goals and four assists as Turkey led from start to finish against Costa Rica. Tunahan Sonat won 11-of-13 faceoffs for Turkey and Jacob Adoni mad 12 saves. James Collins had a goal and an assist for Costa Rica.
The Netherlands Shakes Up Green Division
The Netherlands overcame a 6-3 deficit after the first quarter to beat Italy 14-8 to set up a potential tie-breaker scenario in the Green Division. The Netherlands and Italy are both 2-1 and Norway is 1-1 heading into its 4 p.m. against Norway.
After Italy’s John St. John scored with 2:48 left in the first quarter to give the Italians the 6-3 lead, they went scoreless for nearly 60 minutes as the Netherlands went on a nine-goal run to put the game out of reach. Graham Bergsma had seven points (3g, 4a) led the Netherlands and Scott Janssen and James van de Veerdonk each had four goals. St. John led Italy with three goals.
In the 2 p.m. games, France earned its first win to finish third in the Yellow Division with a 9-2 victory over Uganda. Uganda led 2-1 after one quarter, but France goalie Pierre McIlwee made 13 saves and held Uganda scoreless for the final 60 minutes of the game. Kevin Bertrand did most of the damage for France, scoring four goals, and Brady LeClercq-Martin added three. Casiro Onen had a goal and an assist for Uganda and Allan Amone made 11 saves.
Sweden took second in the Orange Division with an 18-9 win over Slovakia. Sweden led 2-1 after one quarter and then scored the first seven goals of the second quarter to take command. Kevin Powers had six goals and two assists, giving him 22 points for Sweden in the tournament. Alexander Edena had four goals as well. Ivan Cernak had three goals and three assists for Slovakia. Sweden’s Jimmy Blomgren won 20-of-28 faceoffs.
Germany, Israel, Finland Win Divisions
Germany, the sixth-place finisher in Manchester in 2010, completed a perfect run through the Red Division with a 21-2 win over previously unbeaten Hong Kong. They’ll be joined in the championship bracket by Israel, which won the Orange Division, and Finland, which won the Turquoise Division.
Germany scored the first seven goals and led 15-1 at the half as Simon Giourmetakis scored six goals. Chris Mattes continued to dominate on faceoffs, winning 16-of-17. Mattes is 45-of-48 in the tournament. Matthew Silverio and Cheung Wai Cheng each had one for Hong Kong. Following the game, the German team headed to the Summit Club at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to watch the World Cup final in soccer with Germany taking on Argentina.
Israel, playing in the championship for the first time, continued to roll with a 19-2 win over Korea. Ari Sussman had nine points (4g, 5a) and the former Dartmouth star now has 24 points in the first three games. Wonjae Park and Jae Chun Lee each had one goal for Korea.
Finland held Spain scoreless for nearly 78 minutes to clinch the Turquoise Division with an 18-1 victory over Spain. Nick Ranta had five goals and three assists and Roope Jokela had three goals and three assists. Danny de la Casa scored Spain’s lone goal and Spain’s goalie, Alvaro Couceiro, made 13 saves.
In other morning action, Mexico downed Colombia 12-6 to wrap up second place in the Turquoise Division. Mike Vila, Joe Vila, Javier Halffter and Kevin Katerndahl all had two goals for Mexico. Jiovany Rendon and Timothy Drumta had two goals each for Colombia.
Argentina goalie Michael Gvozden had another outstanding game with 19 saves, but it wasn’t enough as Russia pulled out a 5-2 win. Gvozden has made 57 saves in three games. Will Koshansky had two goals and an assist for Russia.
Austria locked in a third place finish in the Red Division with a 14-1 win over Belgium behind four goals from Gabriel Wagner and three goals and two assists from Alex Ball. David Taylor scored Belgium’s goal and goalies Matt Taylor and Kevin Monsieur combined for 14 saves.
Scotland Sweeps Through White Division
Scotland reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 FIL World Championship and it took the first step towards that level again this year by completing a perfect 3-0 run through the White Division. Scotland downed Latvia 17-7 behind five goals from Jordan McBride. Scotland opened strong, leading the game 11-1 at one point. McBride currently leads the tournament with 16 goals.
Switzerland finished number two in the White Division after knocking off Thailand 11-7. Thailand’s Colton McCaffrey scored the first goal of the game and it was tied 1-1 after the first quarter, but Switzerland took command of the game in the second quarter by outscoring Thailand 4-0. Juan Schmid led Switzerland with three goals and McCaffrey led Thailand with five.
New Zealand, Czech Republic Wins Divisions
New Zealand and the Czech Republic became the first two nations to win their divisions with early morning victories on Sunday.
New Zealand controlled Wales to capture the Plum Division title with a 13-5 victory. New Zealand scored the first five goals of the game with Andrew Clayton netting three goals and an assist during that run. Clayton finished the game with six goals and two assists and James Devine added three goals. Wales got two goals each from Paul Simpson and David Howie.
In the Grey Division, the Czech Republic held off Poland 9-8 in a wild finish. Poland appeared to have tied the game at 9-9 with 16 seconds left, but the goal was called off for an illegal stick and the Czech Republic ran out the clock. Neither team led by more than two goals in the contest and Poland took its only lead at 7-6 with 7:40 to go in the third quarter capping a three-goal run on Wojciech Filipek’s goal.
The Czech Republic regained the lead before Poland tied it at 8-8 with 6:30 on Colin Jesien’s goal. Radek Skala then scored with 3:03 to play in the final quarter for the game winner. Skala led the Czech Republic with three goals and Jesien led Poland with three.
