England and Australia meet on Sunday night in a crucial game that could determine who advances to the Championship Bracket of the World Lacrosse Championship. Australia is 1-1 so far while England is 0-2.
Australia’s loss has come to the United States while England has fallen to the Iroquois and Canada. With those three teams separating themselves from the others, this will be the first true test as the teams fight for the fourth and final berth from the Blue Division into the championship bracket.
Australia is currently tied for third place in the Blue Division (with Canada). Japan and England are behind them with 0-2 marks. Australia defeated Japan 14-13 in double overtime on Friday as Nigel Morton scored the sudden-victory goal. Australia had trailed 12-10 until scoring twice in the final 1:09 of regulation to force overtime.
On Saturday, United States proved too much to handle for the Aussies. Australia hung tough, especially in the middle quarters (being outscored by just 3-2 in the second and third, respectively), but Team USA outscored Australia 5-1 in the fourth for the 16-7 final. Meanwhile, England is 0-2 but has faced two of the three best teams in these World Lacrosse Championships.
Most recently, Canada jumped out to a 13-1 halftime lead on the way to a 23-3 victory. England’s goals were scored by Aaron Prosser of Drexel, Colin Clive of Siena and Adrian Bennett. Canada displayed its tremendous shooting, scoring 23 goals on 27 shots on goal. In its opener, England was tied with the high-powered Iroquois after one quarter, but the Nationals pulled away by outscoring England 12-2 over the second and third quarters.
Samuel Russell of Whittier College got England on the board just over two minutes into the game while he went on to score for a second time. Saturday’s game is set for 8:30 p.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. ET.
With the chances of Australia, England or Japan beating United States, Canada or the Iroquois pretty unlikely, the games between each other will prove especially significant in the quest to advance to the championship bracket of these World Lacrosse Championships.
