COQUITLAM - A bizarre finish to Day 4 of the 2016 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) Under-19 Men's Lacrosse World Championships presented by Novus with the final game moving to three fields before being completed, as Canada defeated the Iroquois Nationals 12-9.
Australia, Ireland, Israel and Hong Kong also won their games (FULL SCHEDULE).
CANADA 12 IROQUOIS NATIONALS 9 - BOX SCORE
The Iroquois Nationals built a 6-5 half-time lead but Canada scored two quick goals to open the third quarter and never trailed again. With just over five minutes left in the third quarter, an electrical issue force an electrical stand to smoke, causing the lights to cut out at the stadium field. The game had to move to two other fields before finishing - one did not have enough working lights to safely light the field and the other had a timer go off and caused a delay of almost an hour before play could safely resume.
"There's only so much you can do," said Canadian head coach Taylor Wray after the game. "You try to keep them loose, focused, moving a little bit. That's pretty much all you can do. You have to worry about the things you can control."
Canada scored the final four goals of the game and defended their lead well in the final 10 minutes. Jeff Teat (4G, 2A) led the red-and-white offence, with single goals coming from Riley Curtis, Ryan Lanchbury, Tanner Cook, Marshal King, Dylan Follows, Tre Leclaire and Thomas Semple. Tehoka Nanticoke paced the Iroquois with five goals, several worthy of the highlight reel, while Austin Staats was again impressive with three goals and four helpers. Matthew Bennett added the other Iroquois goal.
Canadian netminder Kyle Hebert made six saves for the win, while Tyler Armstrong made 11 saves in the loss for the Iroquois."It was a really hard fought game. There are some unbelievable players on both teams," Wray said. "Their guys made some pretty incredible plays tonight, almost indefensible plays. You've got guys draped all over them, and they make great catches, turn and spin and shoot. I mean, I don't know what to tell our guys to stop that. They have some great players."
"And our guys battled hard, too," Wray added. "We needed guys to step up and make plays. Kyle Hebert was awesome, Dalton Fallows made two huge plays for us in fourth quarter. And that's what you need on a team, you need different guys to step up at different times. We were fortunate to have those big plays made to give us some separation."
Canada (2-1) will take on Australia (1-1) on Monday at 4 p.m. The Iroquois (1-1) will face the United States (2-0) at 7:30 p.m.
"We have to take care of business tomorrow. And Australia will be a tough matchup," Wray said."They have shown great patience throughout the tournament and the key I think for us is to build a bit of a lead early and stop them from trying to slow the tempo of the game down."
Canada is vying for one of the first two positions in the Blue Division after the round-robin, as the top two teams get a bye through to the semifinal round.
"An extra day of rest is huge," Wray said. "It gives us time to talk things over and watch some more film, game-plan a bit more for the semifinal match-up. In a tournament like this where you play so many games in a short amount of time, that is huge for a team."
AUSTRALIA 13 ENGLAND 10 - BOX SCORE
Australia led from start to finish, opening up a 4-1 first-quarter lead en route to a 13-10 win over England. England mounted an impressive effort in the second quarter to cut the lead to 8-6 at the half, using five extra-man opportunities to claw back. But Australia's dominant play at the faceoff X and sustained possessions allowed them to hold on for the win. Australia's Timothy Graham (10-for-13) and Sean Clarke (9-for-11) were dominant on draws.
Midfielder Brayden Panting (4G, 2A), Gordon Purdie Jr (3G, 2A), Griffin Nicholas (2G, 1A), Matthew Wood (1G, 2A), Ryan Hockey (1G), Pius Bonjui (1G), and Jordan Campbell (1G) scored for Australia, with Luke Dobson making nine saves in the win. For England, Joseph Cara (4G, 2A) was outstanding in creating space and powering by defenders. Other scoring came from Alex Russell (3G), Elliot Leonard (1G, 1A), Benjamin Page-Laycock (1G). William Hudson (6 saves) and Hal Dwobeng (5 saves) split goalkeeping duties.
England (0-3) next plays the undefeated U.S. team on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in their final round-robin game, while Australia (1-1) will face Canada on Monday afternoon at 4 p.m., before wrapping up their round-robin play on Tuesday evening against the Iroquois Nationals at 7:30 p.m.
HONG KONG VS MEXICO - BOX SCORE
Hong Kong picked up its second win of the world juniors of field lacrosse with a 12-5 win over Mexico on Sunday. Hong Kong opened up a 5-0 lead with patient offence and excellent rotation. Their scoring came from Bryan Houghton (3G, 4A), Siu On Ng (2G, 1A), Jeremy Cheng (2G), William Zhan (2G), Long Fai Ko (2G), Andrew Bazarian Jr (1G), Yun Hong Wu (1G), and Stu Hei Au (1G). Andres Zindel-Mondet Romero and Iain Derek Kunte Cuevas scored twice each for Mexico and Adrian Salinas De La Garza added one goal. Hong Kong (2-1) faces Germany on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in their final round-robin game while Mexico (0-2) will look for its first win against Taiwan Monday morning at 9:30 a.m.
IRELAND 19 KOREA 4 - BOX SCORE
Ireland scored six unanswered goals and never looked back to defeat Korea 19-4. Patrick Magliocchino (7G, 5A) and Rory Madigan (5G, 4A) led Ireland, accounting for more than half of the team's scoring. Other Irish scorers included Kevin Kreder with two goals, and Conor Austin, Josh Appel, Jason Reid and Tom Lyons added singles. Hyunmean Mo, Wonjoon Song, Donghuk Kim and Jooyoung Jang scored for Korea. Ireland (2-0) now prepares to face China (1-0) on Tuesday at 12:30 on Field 2, while Korea (0-2) next faces Scotland (0-1) on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. on Field 2.
ISRAEL 17 TAIWAN 3 - BOX SCORE
Nick Schulkin led the way for Israel with a pair of goals and five helpers. Josh Bernstein added a hat-trick, with Sagi Hashai, Alex Berkowitz, Liron Glam, and Ori Bar David chipping in with two goals a piece. Single goals came from Ron Bentura, Ilan Hascal, Zach Ornstein and Mor Cohen. Taiwan got goals from Min-Hao Cheng, Chi-En Li and Yu-Hung Hu. Israel (2-0) will face Germany (2-0) on Monday at 10 a.m. at the stadium, while Taiwan (0-3) faces Mexico (0-2) on Monday at 9:30 a.m. on Field 2.
