USA 21 - Japan 2
Ryan Boyle paced 12 different scorers for the U.S. men's national team, which jumped out to a 12-0 lead and never looked back in a 21-2 victory Tuesday over Japan in its round-robin finale of the 2006 International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) World Championships. Team USA, which has now won 37 consecutive games in ILF competition, finishes as the Blue Division's No. 1 seed.
Boyle finished with a game-high five points on two goals and three assists. Doug Shanahan, father of a newborn baby (daughter Riley Lynn) as of 6:45 p.m. Monday night, had two goals to go with an 11-for-13 performance in faceoffs and a game-high six ground balls.
The U.S. (5-0) plays the winner of a Wednesday crossover game between Red Division top seed Ireland and the loser of this afternoon's Australia-Iroquois game in a championship semifinal Thursday.
Japan (0-5) remains winless in its Blue Division debut, despite a strong second-half performance from goalie Kazuhiko Udagawa (12 saves).
The Americans held significant advantages in shots (50-22), ground balls (32-20) and faceoffs (19-7) to control possession throughout the game. Mike Powell had a goal and an assist to take the tournament lead with 25 points (9g, 16a), ahead of brother and teammate Ryan Powell (3g, 1a on Tuesday) and Canada's John Grant Jr., who are tied for second with 23 points apiece. A.J. Haugen added three goals for Team USA.
Against Japan, the U.S. defense did not allow a goal until Wataru Tsugu scored with 3:59 remaining in the second quarter to make it 12-1. The U.S. rattled off nine more goals bridging the third and fourth quarters before Gen Hasegawa scored with 4:42 remaining in the game for the final margin. Trevor Tierney (eight saves) and Chris Garrity (three) again split goalkeeping duties for Team USA.
Quarter scores: 8-0, 12-1, 14-1, 21-2
Iroquois 12 - Australia 10
In the most important game played at TD Waterhouse Field on Tuesday, Team Australia fell to the Iroquois Nationals by a score of 12-10 as the Nationals outscored the Aussies 7-4 in the second half to pull out the victory.
By virtue of their win the Nationals finish in third place in the elite Blue Division while Australia finishes in fourth. Iroquois forward Delby Powless, who scored 2 goals in the game including the game-winner, was pleased with the victory for his team, who finish the round robin portion of the tournament with a record of 3-2.
"Going into this tournament, we saw this as the game that we really wanted to win," said Powless. "Australia has beaten us for fourteen years straight, so it's nice to finally be able to pull one out against them."
The Australians struck first in the match, with David Whiteman netting his seventh goal of the tournament 3:59 into the first quarter. The Aussies kept the potent Iroquois attack in check through much of the opening fame by utilizing an aggressive fore check that impeded the Nationals' ability to effectively move the ball up field. Brett Bucktooth was finally able to put the Iroquois Nationals on the scoreboard notching a tally midway through the first to tie the game 1-1. Roger Vyse put the Nationals ahead 4:26 later, but Australia re-tied the game on the power play as Brandan Mundorf scored his first of three goals in the game at 17:50 of the first. On the ensuing face-off, Peter Inge won the draw cleanly and proceeded to penetrate the Iroquois zone, passing to Nathan Stiglich who fed his brother Daniel Stiglich who tucked a shot past Nationals goaltender Marty Ward to give Australia a 3-2 lead. Coy Bomberry tied the game with 0:20 left in the first quarter on a blistering shot that beat Australian goalie Warren Brown.
Neal Powless opened the second quarter with a tally for Team Iroquois, but the Aussies then scored three straight goals off the sticks of Brendan Mundorf, Robert Stark, and Mundorf again. After the three goal run by Australia made the score 6-4 in favor of the squad from Down Under, the Iroquois went on a run of their own, registering the next five scores in the match, with Gewas Schindler (2), Kent Squire (2), and Brent Bucktooth contributing to the Iroquois' goal scoring run. Iroquois goaltender Marty Ward held Australia scoreless in the third period while making several spectacular saves in the process. With the Aussies on the power play with 7:15 remaining in the third, Ward made a huge stop off of Brendan Mundorf to keep his team's three-goal advantage intact.
After Australia scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter (Stark and Whiteman), Delby Powless ripped back-to-back shots to the back of the Aussie net to make the score 11-8 in favor of the Nationals. After a two goal run by Australia brought them to within one of the Iroquois lead, Roger Vyse added an insurance goal to give Iroquois a 12-10 win. Powless feels that his team is on the right track heading into the playoff round.
"Historically, Iroquois teams have performed better the further along in a tournament they've been," said Powless. "We played a good further quarter against Japan, an okay match against the U.S., and now we've put together our best game of the Worlds so far. We're definitely in good shape going into the medal round."
Quarter scores: 3-3, 5-6, 9-6, 12-10
Canada 17 - England 9
The usual suspects did the scoring to help Canada secure a 17-9 win over England Tuesday in the final game of the preliminary round of the World Lacrosse Championship.
The game meant nothing in standings to the Canucks. Canada had already nailed down second place - behind the undefeated U.S. - and was destined to meet Finland Wednesday in divisional cross-over action.
Gary Gait scored four and John Grant Jr. had three. Grant became tournament scoring leader. The 1-4 England squad, playing for pride, hung tough with Canada and went up 3-1 early in the first quarter, two of the goals coming from Paul Flowers. It was England's goalie, Ben McAllister, continuing his stellar play, who took several sure goals away from the Canucks.
England took a quick second quarter 4-3 lead before Canada fired four in a row, spreading the scoring around and finally taking the lead six minutes in.
It wasn't until the 12th minute before Canada's two of Canada's top snipers got on the board. John Grant Jr. scored two consecutive goals to up the Canadian lead to 8-5 and Gary Gait scored his first. Canada took a 9-6 lead into the second half.
Jeff Zywicki, emerging as a force in the tournament in the attack trio of Grant-Gait and Zywicki, scored his third of the game to open the third quarter and Gait added another to put Canada up 11-6.
When Grant scored his third with three minutes left in the quarter it made him the tournament goals and points leader with 12 goals and nine assists.
Canada was up 13-8 at the three-quarter mark killing six penalties, three of them in succession. Canada began to run away with it in the fourth.
Quarter scores: 3-3, 9-6, 13-8, 17-9
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