BOX SCORE
NETANYA, Israel — 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 Wingate Institute.
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 added back-to-back goals, and Ned Crotty notched a goal 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 got on the board on Nigel Morton's goal with 14:14 left in the period.