Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/13/12
Matt Kavanagh (Chaminade, Notre Dame) had three goals and three assists and Kyle Keenan (Smithtown West, Duke) tallied four goals while Joseph Leonard (Hicksville, St. John’s) scored three goals to lead team USA to a 24-6 rout of Australie in its opener today at the 2012 FIL U19 World Championships in Turku, Finland.
Steve Pontrello (St. Augustine Prep) added two goals as the U.S. (1-0) improved to 37-0 all-time in sanctioned U19 international competition.
Australia (0-1) took early leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but Charlie Raffa (St. Anthony’s, Maryland) scored off a faceoff win with 11:33 left in the opening quarter to put the U.S. ahead 3-2 and it never trailed from there. Leonard scored with 2:40 left in the first half to give the U.S. a 9-4 lead and start a 9-0 run that stretched into the fourth quarter.
Daniel Eipp (Groton Dunstable, Mass., Harvard) and Ryan Tucker (Gilman, Virginia) each had hat tricks. The U.S. outscored Australia 14-2 in the second half and won 20 of 25 faceoffs for the game.
Zach Oliveri (Connetquot, UMass) had five saves and Kyle Turri (West Islip, Duke) had four in goal.
In earlier pool play action Friday, Germany beat Wales, 20-10, Scotland downed Korea, 16-4, and the Iroquois clobbered England, 24-4.
The U.S. faces Canada at 7 p.m. (noon EST) Saturday in Turku in a rematch of the last three U19 world championship games. LaxMagazine.com will have a live game blog.
2012 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) Under-19 World Championships
Blue Division
USA 5 4 7 8 – 24
AUS 2 2 0 2 – 6
Goals: USA – Keenan 4, Kavanagh 3, Eipp 3, Tucker 3, Leonard 3, Steve Pontrello, St. Augustine Prep 2, Raffa 2, Kelly 1, Zoppo 1, D’Agostino 1, Buczek 1; AUS – Thompson 2, Polkinghorne 1, Cahill 1, Simpson 1, Kennedy 1
Assists: USA – Kavanagh 3, Eipp 1, Tagliaferri 1, Kelly 1, Zoppo 1; AUS – Polkinghorne 1;
Saves: USA – Oliveri 5, Turri 4; AUS – Lee 7, Cox 1
