Lacrosse
Friday’s Recap Of Games
Ireland 16 vs Germany 12
The game featured seven ties and two lead changes, before Ireland took control on a five goal performance in the fourth quarter at the 2016 Federation of International Lacrosse Under-19 Men’s Lacrosse World Championship.
Ireland midfielder Ruairi Dunbar who calls Carlow Ireland home scored the games first goal (first in international play) mentioned “We just had to keep our heads as it was very tough mentally and we all had to come together, as we’ve done previously in the tournament – as a family – and keep going.”
China 15 vs Scotland 9
China’s Eric Wang was solid in the faceoff department and was 19-for-22 on the draws, and along with a balanced
Coquitlam’s Matthew McIlwrick (had four goals and three assists) stated “We had a great tournament and everyone came together as we had a lot of practices going into this. We really gelled and I’m really proud of how everyone battled for the whole tournament.”
Other China scoring came from Kevin Dong (4G, 5A), Wang (3G), Martin Ma (2G), Andrew Song (1G) and Henry Hu (1G), while Vancouver’s Kurtis Shum added three assists.
After defeating Scotland already in the round-robin, McIlwrick said “the Chinese squad had a game-plan in place for the placing game.”
It was a special experience for McIlwrick one of several local-area players in the 14-team tournament.
Hong Kong 13 vs Korea 4
When asked Lai mentioned “Today was the last game and I didn’t play a lot in previous games because I was our team’s second goalie and it gave me the opportunity to do well. I’m happy for us that we won this game.”
Long Fai Ko (3G, 2A) and Matthew Nisbet (3G) led the Hong Kong offence, with Jeremy Cheng (2G, 1A), Andrew Bazarian Jr (1G, 2A), Yu Hong Wu (1G) and Cheuk Hin Lee (1G) rounding out the scoring for Hong Kong.
Korea got a three-goal afternoon from Jooyoung Jang, while Joseph Son added a goal and assist.
Scott Browing, Hong Kong Head Coach mentioned “after months of preparation it was nice to go out with a win in Hong Kong’s first-ever appearance at the FIL U19 worlds.
“The team’s been together for a couple of months, and we’ve been playing amongst ourselves and against sort of local competition. As we’ve come together and been playing against international competition and Canadian high school and a club team has helped them to understand the speed of the game and the competitiveness of the game and little bit more intensity,” The future is a bright one for the Hong Kong program with Browning and company looking ahead.
“The men’s program and U19 program in Hong Kong has a good solid base
Mexico 9 vs Taiwan 4
Mexico won its first game of the tournament with a convincing 9-4 victory over Taiwan for 13th place at the 2016
Alec Gastony, one of the team’s goalkeepers in the tournament, played out at attack and led the Green Machine with five goals. The Denver-based Adam State University product was a major factor in Mexico’s growth and success throughout the week.
“Honestly, I’m just proud,” Gastony said. “I’m so proud of this team. I just couldn’t be happier that this group of guys pulled it together and decided to come [together] as one.”
Saturday’s schedule:
5th Place: Israel vs England, 10 a.m. (Stadium)
Bronze-Medal Game: Iroquois Nationals vs Australia, 1 p.m. (Stadium)
Gold-Medal Game: USA vs Canada, 4 p.m. (Stadium)
Closing Ceremonies will follow
Thanks to Andy Watson for all updates throughout the week.