July 15: United States Wins Blue Division
Running staff reports from LaxMagazine
(COMMERCE CITY, CO) The United States dominated early, racing out to a 10-0 lead on its way to an 18-5 victory over the Iroquois Nationals to earn the top seed in the Blue Division before a sold out crowd of 7,303 at the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship, presented by Trusted Choice.
By winning the Blue Division, the United States earned a bye into the semifinal round of the championship. The semifinals will be played on Thursday, July 17 beginning at 4:30 p.m. in the main 18,000-seat stadium at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
(Scott McCall Photography)
Rob Pannell scored the first three goals of the game, four of the first five and finished with seven overall, the second-highest total in U.S. team history, to key the victory. Paul Rabil added three goals and three assists as the U.S. outshot the Iroquois Nationals 50-14. The U.S. also continued its faceoff dominance with Chris Eck winning 9-of-13 and Greg Gurenlian winning 8-of-11.
Miles Thompson led the Iroquois Nationals with three goals. The Nationals finished 3-2 in the Blue Division and their final seed will be determined by tonight’s Australia-Canada game, slated to start at 10 p.m. after the weather delays earlier in the evening.
Story at WorldLacrosse2014.com: July 15: United States Wins Blue Division
Canada Clinches No. 2 Seed
Canada beat Australia 12-4 to wrap up the number two seed in a game that ended just after midnight local time.
Australia’s James Lawerson opened the scoring four minutes into the game, but the Aussies then went scoreless for the next 45 minutes as Canada pulled away. Canadian goalie Dillon Ward made 10 saves while going the distance for the victory. Adam Jones led the offense with three goals and Mark Matthews had two. Anson Carter had two for Australia.
Canada will have a bye into Thursday’s semifinals.
In the quarterfinals it will be Scotland against the Iroquois Nationals on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and Israel against Australia at 7 p.m. Scotland and Israel played their way into the quarterfinal round with wins on Tuesday.
Sweden Edges Out Poland
Jonathan Andreass made 12 saves while allowing just three goals as Sweden won a defensive battle over Poland 6-3. Sweden managed just one goal in the first half, but then outscored Poland 4-0 in the third quarter. Tim Riley and Alexander Edena each scored twice. Sweden will play Finland tomorrow at 11 a.m. and can finish as high as ninth. Larry Cerasi scored twice for Poland, who also got 13 saves from goalie Christian Dzwilews and a 10-of-11 faceoff performance from Michael Poch. Poland is off until tomorrow and can finish as high as 17th.
Japan Picks Up First Victory
Ken Ikegawa scored the game-winning goal in overtime off a nice dish to the crease from Wataru Tsugu as Japan edged England 13-12 to earn the No. 5 seed in the Blue Division. England finished sixth.
Japan led 11-8 late in the fourth quarter, but England rallied and sent it into overtime on Colin Clive’s goal with nine seconds left in regulation.
Ikegawa, Yuji Tadahira, Shunki Hatada and Andrew Lay all had two goals for Japan. Japan will play New Zealand at 12 noon tomorrow on ESPN3 and can finish as high as fifth.
England got four goals from Clive and three goals from Aaron Prosser. They’ll play Germany at 2 p.m. tomorrow and can also finish as high as fifth.
Ireland outscored the Czech Republic 5-0 to rally for a 12-10 victory. Michael Shea opened the fourth quarter scoring one minute in to cut the Czech lead to 10-8 and then midway through the quarter, Ireland ripped off four goals in a span of just over three minutes to switch the game.
Shea led Ireland with four goals and they will now play Switzerland tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. They can finish as high as ninth place. The Czech Republic was led by Pavel Dosly with four goals and an assist. They will be off until Thursday and can finish as high as 13th.
Finland outscored the Netherlands 3-1 in the final quarter to rally for a 7-6 win. Roope Jokela led Finland with three goals and Jarno Aaltonen scored twice in the fourth quarter. Finland plays tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. and can finish as high as ninth. The Netherlands got four goals from Scott Janssen and they will now be off until Thursday. Then can finish as high as 13th.
Van Sternbergh netted five goals in Hong Kong’s 15-11 win over Bermuda, a game highlighted by a 6-0 second quarter for the victorys. Hong Kong will play Latvia tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m. and they can finish as high as 17th. Bermuda got four goals from Douglas Bell and will next play Thursday. They can finish as high as 21st.
Austria scored the first five goals of the game and cruised past France 15-4. Gabriel Wagner had four goals and Klaus Hauer had five assists for Austria, who will play Thailand at noon tomorrow and can finish as high as 25th. Gregoire Rouet had a goal and an assist for France in the loss. France is off until Thursday and can finish as high as 29th.
Strong Start Puts Scotland in Quarterfinals
Scotland outscored New Zealand 10-4 in the first half, powerd by a seven-goal second quarter, and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 16-12 victory. Scotland will play the No. 3 seed from the Blue Division in the quarters at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
A three-goal run for New Zealand cut Scotland’s lead to 5-4 midway through the second quarter, but Scotland scored the final five goals of the half to pull away. Kyle Buchanan paced Scotland with four goals and two assists and Ethan Harris made 12 saves.
Jeremy Kincaid had three goals for New Zealand which will play the number five seed from the Blue Division tomorrow at 12 noon. New Zealand can still finish as high as fifth place.
Switzerland scored the last five goals of the game to rally past Wales 7-5. Tyson Ehinger made eight saves in the win and held Wales scoreless for the final 26 minutes. Joni Schreiber scored the go-ahead goal with 5:19 to play and Thierry Frei iced it with 0:01 left in the game. Frei and Luis Zurkirchen each had two goals for Switzerland. Paul Simpson had a goal and an assist for Wales.
Switzerland plays tomorrow at 9 a.m. and can still finish as high as ninth. Wales is off until Thursday at 1 p.m. and can finish as high as 17th.
Korea earned its first win with a big 23-3 victory over Costa Rica. Jae Chun Lee and Bumsuck Yoo each had four goals with Lee adding two assists. Luis Alonso Acuna Murillo led Costa Rica with two goals. Korea can finish as high as 33rd place and next plays on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Costa Rica will play Colombia on Thursday in the 37th place game.
Turkey edged Slovakia 6-5 in overtime with Ismail Bilgin netting the game-winner with 2:03 left in the first overtime. Jacob Adoni came up big once again, making 16 saves for Turkey.
Hunter Barnett led Turkey with two goals and an assist and they will now play Italy tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. in a game on ESPN3. They can finish as high as 17th place. Martin Kramar had two goals and Ivan Cernak had four assists for Slovakia. Slovakia next plays on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. and can finish as high as 25th.
Vettoretti Shines as Italy Tops Mexico
Jordan Vettoretti, a two-time All-American at Herkimer CC who went on to play at Georgetown, poured in 11 points (6g, 5a) to lead Italy past Mexico 18-10 on Tuesday morning. Italy led 6-3 midway through the second quarter and then went on an eight-goal run with Vettoretti scoring four of the goals and assisting on another. Axkana Patraca led Mexico with four goals.
Israel Beats Germany to Advance to Quarterfinals
Israel advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship, presented by Trusted Choice, by defeating Germany 15-1 in a play-in game Tuesday morning.
Matthew Cherry had four goals and an assist while Ari Sussman and Noah Miller each added three goals. Israel goalie Henry Altschuler made seven saves while allowing no goals in three quarters of action. Israel advances to Wednesday’s quarterfinal round when it will play the Blue No. 4 seed at 7 p.m.
Germany will play the Blue No. 6 seed tomorrow at 2 p.m. Germany can still finish as high as fifth in the event.
In other consolation games, Latvia defeated Norway 15-8, Russia defeated Spain 11-6 and Argentina 13-6.
Gatis Zeps, Glebs Supenko and Arturs Krastins all had three goals for Latvia and Eli Lasda had two goals and four assists for Latvia. Aksel Kvaal, Jesper Norman Hjorth and Jakob Spieler Palmers all had two goals for Norway. Latvia will play tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. and can finish as high as 17th place. Norway will be off until Thursday and can finish as high as 25th place.
Russia jumped out to a 4-1 lead after one quarter and beat Spain behind four goals from Eugene Arkipov. Danny DiBono led Spain with three. Russia plays tomorrow at 9 a.m. and can finish as high as 25th. Spain is off unti Thursday and can finish as high as 29th.
Argentina picked up its first victory as Octavio Bernabo scored six goals and Michael Gvozden made 19 saves against Colombia. Cam Scully-Ramirez had three goals for Colombia. Both teams are off tomorrow. Argentina can still finish as high as 33rd place. Colombia will play on Thursday at 2 p.m. in the 37th place game.
