LONDON — Captain Scott Tupper had a hat trick and Canada scored three goals in four minutes to start the second half and never looked back in a 7-3 win over China on Saturday at the 2017 field hockey world league semifinal.
Matthew Sarmento, Mark Pearson, Floris van Son, and Keegan Pereira also scored for the Canadians, who move on to play for a spot at the 2018 World Cup in Sunday's fifth place match.
Canada will face the winner of Saturday's match between India and Pakistan. Canada has faced both teams once so far at the tournament, picking up an opening match 6-0 win against Pakistan while dropping a 3-0 decision to India.
The second half was all Canada on Saturday, particularly early in the third quarter when the Canadians went on a scoring frenzy and put the game out of reach.
Pereira found Pearson behind the Chinese defenders and Pearson put the ball through the Chinese goalkeeper Ming Cheng's legs to give Canada its first lead in the 33rd minute.
Then, after Sukhi Panesar forced a turnover in the midfield, van Son beat a Chinese defender at the top of the circle before hitting home Canada's fourth goal of the game in the 35th minute.
In the 37th, Pereira knocked a long pass from Tupper down, took one more touch in the air, before popping it up and over the Chinese keeper for Canada's fifth goal.
China got one back on a Wo Wei drag flick in the 39th minute, but Canada was awarded a corner with only 20 seconds left in the third quarter, and that's when Tupper picked up his second goal of the game.
The Chinese kept pushing but Carter was on top of his game, making two saves on a scramble in front of his goal in the 51st minute. Tupper helped by making a strong defensive play sweeping the ball off his goal line before scoring his third of the game in the 52nd minute to complete the hat-trick and Canada's 7-3 win.
The Canadian Press
