Iroquois National advance to semi-final round

Dressed in matching black ribbon shirts, the men of the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team stomped onto the field during the opening ceremony of the 2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship in Prague, Czech Republic. Met with the roar of applause the Nationals circled the arena with two verses of the stomp dance.

The Nationals first match was slated to take place against the Team out of Ireland. In this first round of play the Nationals easily overcame their opponent with a final score of 23-3. The second round was against the host team of Czech Republic. Nationals came away with their second win of the tournament with a score of 25-5.

With an unbeaten record under their belts, the Nationals would then face off against the team from USA. At the end of the first quarter USA was ahead 3-2, but the Nationals quickly tied that to 3-3 coming into the second quarter. Team USA slowly pulled away, eventually with a 7-4 lead over the Nationals. A power play goal by the Nationals was needed to spark the team with goal number 5 as they came back to tie with USA 8-8 by the end of the third quarter.

Coming into the fourth quarter in the battle of the unbeaten’s, Cory Bomberry gave the Nationals their first lead of the game. With 5-minutes to play Cody Jamieson added another goal to bring the lead to 10-8 for the Nationals. This goal was quickly countered by USA as they closed the gap to 10-9. Roger Vyse scored the final goal for the Nationals bringing them ahead 11-9. With 3-minutes left on the clock USA scored bringing the team within one goal with a score of 11-10. As the time was running low on the clock there was a push from both teams as goaltender for the Nationals, Mike Thompson, made some incredible saves to close the game, holding USA to 10 goals.

With this 11-10 come from behind victory over USA, the Nationals advance to the top ranking of Pool B guaranteeing them a spot in the semi-final rounds slated for this Friday. The quarterfinal games for Pool B are taking place today between England and Czech Republic; the winner of that game will be taking on the Nationals on Friday.

To watch the game live online checkout the FIL Synot Tip World Indoor Lacrosse Championship website at: http://www.wilcprague2011.com/