A rundown of the action during Day Four of the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, held Monday at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario.

Australia holds off Czech rally

Adam Hamilton scored the game-winning goal midway through the fourth quarter, pushing Australia past the Czech Republic, 13-12, in Monday's first contest.

The victory was Australia's first in four games. The Czechs fall to 0-4.

Australia had a comfortable lead most of the way, capped off by Hamilton's goal with 6:50 to play in regulation, which made it a 13-9 ballgame.

The Czechs weren't finished, though. Pavel Dosly and Josef Ondracek scored to make it a two-goal game, and Tomas Beran narrowed the gap to one in the closing seconds. Make that "closing second" -- only one remained, leaving no chance for a tie.

Gordon Purdie led the Australians with eight points (2 goals, 6 assists), while Hamilton and Michael McInerney each recorded hat tricks. Beran had six points (3 goals, 3 assists) for the Czech Republic.

Peter Koshnitsky recorded the win, making 14 saves on 26 shots. Jiri Malina was the hard-luck loser, stopping 38 shots in his best outing of the tournament. Both netminders played the full sixty minutes.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
Australia (1-3)                       2  4  4  3  --  13
Czech Republic (0-4)                  1  3  3  5  --  12

AUSTRALIA                     CZECH REPUBLIC
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Purdie         2 - 6     8    Beran          3 - 3     6
Hamilton       3 - 1     4    Dosly          2 - 3     5
McInerney      3 - 1     4    Mrlik          2 - 1     3
Fry            1 - 3     4    Ondracek       2 - 1     3
Maher          2 - 1     3    Prochazka      2 - 0     2
Kernaghan      1 - 2     3    Knotek         1 - 1     2
Hall           0 - 2     2    Novacek        0 - 2     2
Robb           1 - 0     1    Bejsovec       0 - 1     1
Koshnitsky     0 - 1     1    Derganz        0 - 1     1
                              Mika           0 - 1     1
                              Preisler       0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           51    Shots on goal           26
Saves made by (GA)      14    Saves made by (GA)      38
   Koshnitsky (12)   14          Malina (13)       38
Penalties                8    Penalties               11
Penalty Minutes         19    Penalty Minutes         22
Power Play Chances       8    Power Play Chances       5
Power Play Goals         4    Power Play Goals         2
Loose Balls             32    Loose Balls             18
Faceoffs Won            14    Faceoffs Won            11

Canada crushes Scotland, 25-5, clinches #1 seed

Canada continued its red-hot play in the tournament, pounding Scotland, 25-5, to clinch the number-one seed in Thursday's semifinals.

Another huge first quarter -- 10-1 after fifteen minutes -- was all the Canadians needed in improving to 4-0. Scotland is now 2-2.

John Marr, the 63-year-old field lacrosse goaltender who appears on the international stage every four years at the World Games, made his first appearance of the tournament, allowing four goals in the first four minutes.

Derek Collins then came on in relief, and fared not much better, allowing six more goals before the quarter was done.

Canada went on to lead 15-3 at halftime and 22-4 after three quarters.

Kaleb Toth led the Maple Leaf side with ten points (4 goals, 6 assists), but two of his teammates -- John Tavares and Tracey Kelusky -- also scored a quartet in the game.

Rob Taylor was Scotland's only multi-goal scorer, finishing with two goals and one assist to tie Blair Ferguson (3 assists) for the team lead in points.

Anthony Cosmo earned the win, allowing three goals on fourteen first-half shots before giving way to Pat O'Toole. The loss went to Collins, who finished with 33 saves on 52 shots faced.

As for Marr, he came back late in the fourth quarter, and finished with six goals allowed on thirteen shots.

As the only team which can finish with at least four wins in the preliminary round, Canada is assured of playing the number-four team Thursday afternoon at 4:00 PM. First, though, it must play the United States, doing so Wednesday at 7:30 PM.

Scotland, a win away from moving on to the semifinals as well, finished up pool play Wednesday afternoon against Australia.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
Canada (4-0)                         10  5  7  3  --  25
Scotland (2-2)                        1  2  1  1  --   5

CANADA                        SCOTLAND
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Toth           4 - 6    10    Taylor         2 - 1     3
Tavares        4 - 5     9    Ferguson       0 - 3     3
Doyle          2 - 6     8    Jef Hobbs      1 - 1     2
Kelusky        4 - 3     7    Teat           1 - 1     2
Stroup         3 - 4     7    Arbuckle       0 - 2     2
Williams       0 - 6     6    Gibson         1 - 0     1
D Malawsky     2 - 3     5    Donaghy        0 - 1     1
Moss           2 - 1     3    Sutherland     0 - 1     1
Veltman        1 - 2     3
Driscoll       2 - 0     2
Coyle          1 - 0     1
Murray         0 - 1     1
Woods          0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           65    Shots on goal           25
Saves made by (GA)      20    Saves made by (GA)      40
   Cosmo (3)         11          Collins (19)      33
   O'Toole (2)        9          Marr (6)           7
Penalties                5    Penalties                5
Penalty Minutes         13    Penalty Minutes         10
Power Play Chances       2    Power Play Chances       4
Power Play Goals         2    Power Play Goals         1
Loose Balls             93    Loose Balls             61
Faceoffs Won            19    Faceoffs Won            15

Iroquois beat USA by a touchdown

The Iroquois Nationals clinched a semifinal berth by defeating the United States, 21-14, in Monday's evening game.

The Nats are now 3-1 heading into the final day of round-robin action, while the Americans are 2-2.

The Americans quickly found themselves in a hole, trailing 4-1 after one quarter, and the hole continued to grow for most of the game. The Iroquois led 10-3 at halftime and 16-7 after three quarters.

However, the Americans battled back to make the final score respectable, scoring seven times in the fourth quarter.

Cory Bomberry led the Iroquois with six goals and three assists, while Delby Powless and Kim Squire each chipped in four goals and five assists. Dan Marohl (1 goal, 6 assists) and Chris Panos (5 goals, 1 assist) topped the American stat sheet.

Ken Montour went the distance in goal for the Nationals, making 39 saves. Dwight Maetche (29 saves, 13 goals allowed) and Jake Henhawk (3 saves, 8 goals allowed) split the duties for the Americans.

The Iroquois Nationals have clinched the number-two seed in Thursday's semifinals, where they are most likely to face Scotland. In the meantime, they'll tune up for the knockout round by playing the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

The United States also will advance to the final four, but needs a minor miracle to avoid running into the red-hot Canadians in the semifinals. The Americans get their first look at the Maple Leafs Wednesday evening in Kitchener.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
United States (2-2)                   1  2  4  7  --  14
Iroquois Nationals (3-1)              4  6  6  5  --  21

UNITED STATES                 IROQUOIS NATIONALS
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Marohl         1 - 6     7    Co Bomberry    6 - 3     9
Panos          5 - 1     6    D Powless      4 - 5     9
Finneran       1 - 4     5    Squire         4 - 5     9
Fraser         0 - 5     5    Jacobs         2 - 4     6
Ladouceur      3 - 2     5    N Powless      3 - 2     5
Wittman        2 - 2     4    Ca Bomberry    0 - 5     5
Curtis         2 - 1     3    Jamieson       1 - 0     1
                              B Stevens      1 - 0     1
                              Burnam         0 - 1     1
                              Kilgour        0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           53    Shots on goal           53
Saves made by (GA)      32    Saves made by (GA)      39
   Maetche (13)      29          K Montour (14)    39
   Henhawk (8)        3
Penalties                5    Penalties               14
Penalty Minutes         10    Penalty Minutes         31
Power Play Chances      14    Power Play Chances       5
Power Play Goals         8    Power Play Goals         3
Faceoffs Won            18    Faceoffs Won            14

Andrew McKay contributed to these game reports.