Wisconsin Soccer Central

Tosaint Ricketts (UW-Green Bay) and Canada left no doubt that they'll be in the pot for the draw of the third round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.

Ricketts scored twice as Canada cruised past Dominica 4-0 on Tuesday night at BMO Field in Toronto to win the teams' second-round qualifiying series 6-0 on aggregate.

The third-round draw will be held July 25 in St. Petersburg, Fla., and will include 12 teams split into six two-leg series to be played between Aug. 31 and Sept. 8. Those winners will join the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago in the fourth round of regional qualifying.

Ricketts, who finished his first season with Israeli club Hapoel Haifa in the spring, scored the final two goals in Tuesday's victory.

He had a tap-in off a cross from FC Dallas forward Tesho Akindele in the 52nd minute, then chipped Dominica goalkeeper Glenson Prince after running on to a through ball from Toronto FC's Jonathan Osorio in the 78th to close out the scoring.

"It felt great, especially wasting a couple chances in the first leg, it felt great to put one away today - put two, actually, away," said Ricketts, who has 10 international goals in his 39 caps. (Watch interview below)

Next up for Canada, which has won four straight games and is unbeaten in five, is the CONCACAF Gold Cup in July. The Canadians will face El Salvador on July 8 in Carson, Calif., Jamaica on July 11 in Houston and Costa Rica on July 14 at BMO Field.

"The mood's good," Ricketts said. "We just want to keep building, we want to build on these wins and especially on what (coach Benito Floro's) been teaching us in training. We just want to build on that and bring it into Gold Cup."

On Twitter: @TosaintRicketts