World Indoor Lacrosse Championship 2015 Results: Thursday Scores and Reaction

There were four games on tap for the 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship on Thursday, but only two of them carried legitimate significance. 

Two early games on the day were just a warm-up for the two quarter-final matches as the United States, Ireland, Israel and the Czech Republic vied for the final two spots to play either Canada or the Iroquois Nationals.

Here's a look at the results from all of Thursday's action:

Winner	Score	Loser
Australia	17-13	Serbia
Turkey	15-12	Switzerland
USA	22-2*	Ireland
Israel	13-12*	Czech Republic

Australia 17, Serbia 13

After dropping their first two games, Serbia had entered Thursday winners of their last three games, while Australia posted a 4-1 record in their first five games. 

The Australians snapped Serbia's win streak in a 17-13 victory, scoring seven of the game's last nine goals after trailing 11-10 with 17 minutes left in the game. 

A big reason why Australia were able to pull away was because they were able to shut down Serbia's Nik Bilic in the final half-hour. After starting the game with five goals in the first 30:26, Bilic scored just once more for the rest of the day. 

Australia were carried by the scoring exploits of Matthew Taylor, Caleb Hall and Jeff Joy, who scored five, four and three goals, respectively, combining for 12 of Australia's 17 tallies.    

Turkey 15, Switzerland 12

Much like Australia and Serbia, Turkey and Switzerland were locked in a close game during its final 20 minutes. With the game tied at 10, Turkey scored three unanswered goals—two from Anthony Terranova—to build an insurmountable lead. 

Terranova had a well-balanced game, recording four goals and five assists, having a hand in over half of his team's goals. Of Turkey's 52 shots on goal, he had 21 of them. 

But it was Dave DeRiso and Joseph Rainoldi who did the heavy lifting for Turkey, combining for the other 11 goals. DeRiso scored six, while Rainoldi added five, with the latter being the most efficient. Rainoldi racked up his five goals on just nine shots, while DeRiso needed 18 to score six. 

Switzerland remain winless at the WILC, now dropping to 0-6. This is the second time they've lost to Turkey, with their first coming on the day's opener, a 12-6 loss. 

United States 22, Ireland 2

The United States offense needed something to boost their confidence at this indoor championship. At 2-2 entering the quarterfinals, an elite team in this tournament like the USA didn't win a game by more than seven goals as scoring was inconsistent throughout the roster. 

On Thursday night however, the United States looked like a well-oiled machine as they ran over Ireland 22-2 in the quarterfinals. 

Casey Powell and Drew Snider each recorded four goals for the United States while Blaze Riorden, Kevin Buchanan, Jeff Ratcliffe and Garrett Thul had hat-tricks. 

This was a game that was over by halftime, with the United States going into halftime up 13-1. Ireland's gritty play motivated the United States to keep their foot on the pedal and continue scoring.

With the game out of reach, chippy play toward the US plenty of man-up opportunities, scoring six of their last eight goals on the man-advantage. Ireland racked up four misconducts on their way to a 16 penalty day.

The US will play the Iroquois Nationals on Friday in the semifinals. They've already lost to the hosts in the tournament opener 13-9. 

Israel 13, Czech Republic 12

Israel is through to the semifinals after outlasting the Czech Republic 13-12 on Thursday night.

Noah Miller and Zachary Pall paced the Israelis with three goals apiece as they almost blew a big lead. After 20 minutes, Israel was up 7-1 and seemingly cruising toward the semis before four unanswered goals from the Czechs.

While the teams traded goals, the Czech Republic battled back to tie the game at 10 with six minutes left in the third quarter. But goals from Daniel Deckelbaum, Chad Culp and Miller helped put the game away for Israel.

They are through to face the three-time defending champions Canada on Friday in their stiffest test of this year's tournament.  

Stats courtesy of WILC2015.com.