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COQUITLAM - The United States will contend for their eighth consecutive Under-19 world championship on Saturday after a near-perfect game in a 23-1 semifinal win over Australia on Thursday. They will Canada once again, after the host defeated the Iroquois Nationals 14-11. Israel, England, Scotland and China also won their playoff games on semifinal Thursday at the 2016 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) Under-19 Men's Lacrosse World Championships presented by Novus.

CANADA 14 IROQUOIS NATIONALS - BOX SCORE
Canada fell behind in the second quarter, but stormed back with several offensive runs to hold off the athletic and offensively gifted Iroquois Nationals 14-11. 

"I liked our determination in the second half and our resolve," said Canadian head coach Taylor Wray, who himself represented Canada at the U19 level in 1999 in Australia. "We went down early and were down at the halftime. And we needed to get some life in the second half."

 The Iroquois Nationals trailed 4-1 but scored five straight to close out the first half with a 6-4 lead, including two highlight-reel goals from Tehoka Nanticoke. One of two big weapons along with Austin Staats, Nanticoke (4G) led the Iroquois offence despite drawing lots of attention from the Canadian defence. The Iroquois stretched the lead to three goals in the third quarter before Ryan Lanchbury scored to start a 7-1 Canadian run.

"[At halftime] we talked to the guys about making little plays, you know, who is going to make the first little play to get us started," Wray said. "I felt like we got a bunch of those to get the momentum going our way. Justin Inacio did what he needed to do facing off. That was really the difference."

Inacio was 17-for-25 at the faceoff X. Canadian scoring came from Jeff Teat (4G, 2A), Lanchbury (2G, 1A), Tre Leclaire of Surrey (2G, 1A), Ryland Rees of Port Coquitlam (2G), Thomas Semple of Coquitlam (1G), Ethan Walker (1G, 2A), Riley Curtis (1G, 2A) and Tanner Cook (1G). Staats (2G), Doug Jamieson (1G), Devon Buckshot (1G), Mitch Laffin (1G), and Squamish's Sekawnee Baker (1G) rounded out the Iroquois scoring.

Kyle Hebert was strong in the Canadian net with 16 saves, while Tyler Armstrong made six saves in the loss for the Nationals.

"I think Kyle played really well in there for us," said Wray. "He came in the second half against the U.S. and became our No. 1. I thought he played well and he'll need to play well on Saturday against the U.S. for us to win."

The win over the Iroquois sets up a rematch with the U.S. for the world U-19 title on Saturday.

"It's always good to play a competitive game before you know you're going play another competitive game. Any time you can play with that pressure weighing on you, that experience is a good thing for the players," Wray said. "Hopefully we can be in a situation on Saturday afternoon when we're playing with that type of pressure on us."

Wray said he knows Canada will have to limit its mistakes and turnovers and play a near-perfect game against the Americans. 

"I think it's their depth," Wray said about what makes Team USA so tough to beat. "They are strong at every position. There really isn't a weakness in their team - from goal to the faceoff, defence, attack, middle of field. They are extremely athletic, they're well coached. There's no real holes, so we're going to have our hands full."

USA 23 AUSTRALIA 1 - BOX SCORE
The balanced American offence was led by Alex Roesner (5G, 1A), while Mac O'Keefe and Dox Aitken added three goals a piece. Other U.S. scoring came from Michael Sowers (2G, 4A), Jared Bernhardt (2G, 2A), Tyler Dunn (2G), Simon Mathias (2G), Timmy Kelly (1G, 1A), Ryan Conrad (1G, 2A), Austin Sims (1G, 3A) and Brad Smith (1G, 1A). Willie Klan started to earn the win with two saves, while Phillip Goss came in and added one save in the fourth quarter. Australia's goal was scored by Sean Clarke, with three goalies seeing action. Luke Dobson earned the loss making six saves.

 CHINA 14 KOREA 7 - BOX SCORE
A six-goal outburst from Matthew McIlwrick led China to a 14-7 win over Korea. He scored twice in the second quarter, as the Chinese broke open a 2-2 game with nine straight goals. Eric Wang had a had trick for China, while Martin Ding Ma had a pair. Singles by Kurtis Shum, Kevin Dong and Andrew Song rounded out the scoring. For Korea, Hyunmean Mo and Joseph Son each scored twice. Donghuk Kim, Jooyoung Jang and Colin Lee each found the net once. China advances to the 9th-place game, where they will face Scotland. That game is set for 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Korea will close out the tournament against Hong Kong in the 11th-place game, at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.

SCOTLAND 10 HONG KONG 7 - BOX SCORE
Hong Kong and Scotland played in a thrilling, back-and-forth game today with Scotland holding off several Hong Kong charges for the 10-7 victory. Calmen Tihansky scored three goals and Josh Richardson and Edward Fennell added a pair each for the Scots. Singles came from Colin Uyeki, who added four helpers, Jonathan Shaw, who added two assists,  and Corrie Bruce, who also added one assist. Oliver Raine made 10 saves for the win. Hong Kong had a three-goal effort from Matthew Nisbet, two goals from Bryan Houghton and singles from Chak Sum Ho and Long Fai Ko. Lai Yin Fung came into goal late in the first quarter and made 12 saves in the win.

ISRAEL 12 IRELAND 10 - BOX SCORE
Israel raced out to a 5-0 first-quarter lead and withstood a late Irish comeback to prevail in the battle of division winners. Israel, who won the Red Division, led 5-0 after 20 minutes and 7-2 at halftime. However, Ireland, champions of the Green Division, responded with five goals in the fourth quarter to draw within two, but could not complete the comeback. Joshua Bernstein led Israel with four goals, while Nick Schulman had three, Alon Berkowitz and Ilon Hascal added a pair each and Noah Knopf had one. For Ireland, Conor Austin and Tom Lyons each had hat tricks, while Patrick Magliocchino had two. Singles by Jason Reid and Rory Madison rounded out the Irish scoring.

ENGLAND 13 GERMANY 9 - BOX SCORE
England used a five-goal run on both sides of halftime to take the lead and then held on against an upset-minded German side. Germany had taken a 4-3 lead midway through the second quarter, but Alex Russell and Oliver Curtis scored late in the half to put England up 5-4 at the long break. Oliver Curtis extended the English lead only 55 seconds into the third and a pair of goals by Austin Hudson completed the run, putting England up 8-5 with 5:25 gone in the second half. Hudson and Zach Peng each had hat tricks for England, with Curtis and Russell adding two each. Singles by Tim Collins, Daniel Matthews and James Ready rounded out their scoring. Germany had nine different goal scorers, with Lukas Kins, Paul Grube, Leonard Nohring, Jakob Boeckermann, Soeren Spiegel, Finn Post, Jonas Lach, Florian Werner and Per-Anders Olters each getting one past the English goaltending tandem of Hal Dwobeng and William Hudson. England will face Israel for fifth place. That game is set for 10 a.m. Saturday. Germany will take on Ireland for seventh place in a game set for 7:30 p.m.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
July 15
Positional Games
13th Place: Mexico vs Taiwan, 10:30 a.m. (Stadium)
11th Place: Hong Kong vs Korea, 1:30 p.m. (Stadium)
9th Place: China vs Scotland, 4:30 p.m. (Stadium)
7th Place: Ireland vs Germany, 7:30 p.m. (Stadium)

July 16
5th Place: Israel vs England, 10 a.m. (Stadium)
Bronze-Medal Game: Iroquois Nationals vs Australia, 1 p.m. (Stadium)
Gold-Medal Game: USA vs Canada, 4 p.m. (Stadium)