Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/14/18
From US Lacrosse
Two days after needing a second-half comeback to beat the Iroquois Nationals, the United States wasted no time in taking control of what resulted in a 19-1 victory over Australia in the Federation of International Lacrosse Men’s World Championship at the Wingate Institute in Netanya, Israel today.
Kevin Unterstein scored just 17 seconds into the game as Trevor Baptiste won the opening draw, Michael Ehrhardt picked up the ground ball and threw it ahead to Unterstein who let loose after finding no resistance.
Paul Rabil scored, then Jordan Wolf (Lower Merion, Duke’s LC) added back-to-back goals, and Ned Crotty scored to give the U.S. a 5-0 lead just over 10 minutes into the game on a hot afternoon in Israel.
The U.S. then went scoreless over the next 13 minutes, but continued to play lockdown defense.
“We were looking to be a little more aggressive from the start,” said U.S. head coach John Danowski. “The guys felt they were a little on their heels Thursday night in the first quarter. We gave up five goals in that first quarter and then four goals in the next three quarters. Today, they wanted to come out from the beginning and play a little more physical and establish themselves.”
Ryan Brown broke the U.S. team’s mini drought four minutes into the second quarter and the U.S. put on a show, scoring seven times in the quarter to take a 12-0 halftime lead.
The U.S. added two more goals in the third quarter before Australia finally go on the board on Nigel Morton’s goal with 14:14 left in the period.
On a day in which it shone on both ends of the field, the one down moment for the U.S. was when goalie Jack Kelly went down with an injury in the third quarter. Kelly did not return to the game as starter John Galloway reentered the game and finished out the victory. Galloway made seven saves while allowing just one goal and Kelly made a save on the only shot he faced.
Ryan Brown, Marcus Holman, Tom Schreiber (Princeton) and Wolf all had hat tricks for the United States, which improved to 2-0 to stay atop the Blue Division standings. Wolf added two assists for a team-high five points while Paul Rabil (1g, 3a) and Matt Danowski (3a) helped make the offense go.
Trevor Baptiste (9-of-12) and Greg Gurenlian (Springfield-Delco/PennState/Duke’s LC, 7-of-11) combined to win 16-of-23 faceoffs for the United States.
Australia (1-1) goalies Sean Aaron (7) and Ryan Spark (6) combined to make 13 saves.
The U.S. plays defending world champion Canada on Sunday night at 7 p.m. (local time). The game will be broadcast live in the U.S. on ESPN2 beginning at 12 noon Eastern.
