World Indoor Lacrosse Championship 2015 Results: Friday Scores, Updated Schedule
The 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship began its first games Friday with five matches on the slate.
With a mixture of some of the most traditional lacrosse-playing countries paired with nations new to the game, the first day is helping show how far the sport has come.
Let's take a look at Friday's action and the tournament's remaining schedule:
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| Israel | 15-8 | Serbia |
| Turkey | 12-6 | Switzerland |
| Ireland | 10-7 | Germany |
| Australia | 7-6 | Finland |
| Iroquois | 13-9 | United States |
| Matchup | Time (ET) | Venue |
| Saturday, Sept. 19 | ||
| Finland vs. Switzerland | 11 a.m. | Onondaga Arena |
| Turkey vs. Australia | 2 p.m. | Onondaga Arena |
| Czech Republic vs. England | 5 p.m. | Onondaga Arena |
| Serbia vs. Ireland | 4: 30 p.m. | Village Pavilion |
| Germany vs. Israel | 7:30 p.m. | Village Pavilion |
| Sunday, Sept. 20 | ||
| Finland vs. Turkey | 10 a.m. | Onondaga Arena |
| USA vs. Czech Republic | 1 p.m. | Onondaga Arena |
| Iroquois vs. Canada | 5 p.m. | War Memorial Arena |
| Switzerland vs. Australia | 9:30 a.m. | Village Pavilion |
| Israel vs. Ireland | 12:30 p.m. | Village Pavilion |
| Germany vs. Serbia | 3:30 p.m. | Village Pavilion |
Israel 15, Serbia 8
Israel started its WILC on the right foot with a seven-goal victory Friday morning over Serbia.
The two countries are still developing into lacrosse nations. Israel has been playing the game for four years compared to Serbia's five, according to Syracuse.com's Chris Carlson.
Using a 5-0 run beginning in the final minutes of the first quarter, Israel found itself up 7-2 by the second and never looked back.
Kyle Bergman led the victors with a hat trick, recording all of his goals in the game's first 21 minutes.
Serbia was having trouble finding the back of the cage. Its first goal didn't come until the beginning of the second quarter—16 minutes, 29 seconds into the game.
More than half of Serbia's scoring came from Ilija and Aleksandar Gajic. Ilija, like Bergman, recorded a hat trick, while Aleksandar added two more goals.
Israel will take on Germany while Serbia meets Ireland, with both games being played Saturday.
Turkey 12, Switzerland 6
Turkey had this game wrapped up before the second half, using a 10-3 outburst in the game's first 30 minutes to build a comfortable advantage.
A big reason why it built such a lead was through the play of goalie Scott Komer. Switzerland outshot Turkey 64-43 on Friday, but Komer made 47 saves with an 89 save percentage.
Turkey's brick wall in goal allowed Anthony Terranova to run wild on the Swiss defense, scoring four goals on the day and adding an assist.
Benjamin Schreiber tallied a hat trick for Switzerland, scoring half of its goals, but his offensive game came alive too late. His first goal came with the Swiss trailing 9-1 with 4:29 left in the second quarter.
The Swiss will meet Finland on Saturday, while Turkey, flying high, will play Australia on Sunday.
Ireland 10, Germany 7
In a game tied 2-2 at the end of the first quarter, Ireland used an 8-2 scoring run to put away Germany.
Stephen Keogh recorded five points on the day with three goals and two assists. He was everywhere and provided one of the shots of the day, as shown by the String League:
Ireland was able to get the win despite committing 12 penalties, twice as many as Germany.
Down 10-4 with less than nine minutes left in the game, Germany tallied three goals to make things interesting, but the comeback attempt fell short. Three penalties in that stretch helped open things up for Germany, which tried to use Jamie Plunkett to spark the comeback.
Plunkett had two of Germany's final three goals and four overall on the day.
Australia 7, Finland 6
Tim Ratje's goal with 2:26 remaining in the game lifted Australia over Finland in the first day's most dramatic game.
It was Ratje's only point of the game, as he helped put away a Finland team that showed no quit. On four separate occasions, Australia took a lead only for Finland to answer every time, managing to tie the game 6-6 with 5:26 to go.
Jarno Aaltonen scored Finland's final two goals to tie things up at five and six, respectively. They were his only two tallies of the day, but they came at big times.
Finland outshot Australia 12-6 in the final quarter as well, but Trevor Brennan came up big on his way to a 30-save day.
Iroquois 13, USA 9
These two sides are no strangers to the podium. In the past three WILC's, the Iroquois have taken silver while the United States have taken bronze.
On Friday night, the story didn't change as the Iroquois took down the US 12-7.
The Iroquois were led by the Thompson's, Miles and Lyle, who combined for five goals on Friday as they led an offense that looked difficult to stop.
In Lacrosse We Trust's Brian McLoughlin showed just how well the Iroquois offense moved the ball:
The United States did show plenty of fight in their opening game. Down 8-4, they pulled within one goal in the final minute of the third quarter. But four unanswered goals from the Iroquois clinched the win.
Joe Researits and Joe Walters each recorded a hat-trick for the USA with Walters adding an assist. The USA is given a bit of a break in their next game as they take on the Czech Republic.
The Iroquois are not so lucky, taking on the three-time champions Canada.
Stats courtesy of WILC2015.com
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