The United States breezed past Australia 28-2 on Thursday to earn a semifinal berth against Canada in the world indoor lacrosse tournament in Prague and coach Tom Ryan didn't even use leading scorer Casey Powell or first-string goalie Erik Miller.
In the other quarterfinal playoff Thursday, despite a three-goal, one assist performance from Shawn Cable of Prince George, Team England was eliminated from title contention in a 12-7 loss to the host Czech Republic team.
The Americans had to play Thursday because of an 11-10 round-robin loss to the Iroquois Nationals earlier in the week, while Canada's players, including Jeff Moleski of Prince George, who got a bye after their 3-0 romp through their robin-robin pool, got in a rigorous practice.
Paul Rabil led the onslaught against the Aussies with six goals, Sean Morris got four, Drew Westervelt, Kevin Buchanan, Brendan Mundorf and Matt Alrich scored three each
Ginny Capicchioni played the first half in the U.S. nets in making her second tournament appearance as the only woman to ever participate in a world indoor championship and Jake Henhawk played the second half.
It's a confident American squad that now goes up against two-time defending champion Canada today.
"We wanted to come here to win the gold and we know we have to go through Canada to do that,'' said Powell. "We're disappointed with our loss to the Iroquois but this is a matchup we knew we were going to have to face sooner or later.
"They have a great team. They seem focused and we're going to have to play our very best game to beat them.''
The Nationals, a perfect 3-0 in the round robin, play the other semifinal today against the Czech Republic.
