by Gary Ahuja/Special to the Langley Advance Times
Netherlands pulled off the biggest upset of the day as the 17th ranked squad edged No. 6 Ireland 11-8 on day one of the 2019 World Lacrosse Men’s Indoor World Championship in Langley.
The 10-day event kicked off on Thursday night at Langley Events Centre with 16 of the 20 teams in action.
Yellow Group
With the game tied at six at the half, Netherlands scored four of the six third-quarter goals and then clamped down defensively over the final 15 minutes, allowing just a single goal.
Ross Parsons paced the Dutch with two goals and five points while Richard Haan scored three times and Joshua Toguri had a goal and three helpers.
Seamus Shanahan, Conor Kelly and Sean Gibson had two goals apiece for the Irish.
The other Yellow Group game was also a tight one with No. 11 Serbia holding off No. 12 Switzerland 8-6.
Illija Gajic had three goals and four points in the win while Nik Bilic had two goal and a pair of helpers.
Lukas Heri’s four points (one goal, three assists) led Switzerland.
Blue Group
The defending champion Canadians opened with a dominant 16-6 victory over the United States while the Iroquois Nationals turned a tight 7-4 game at the half into a 17-6 final score over Israel.
Randy Staats (three goals, seven assists) and Cody Jamieson (two goals, eight assists) had 10 points apiece in the win.
Kyle Bergman finished with three goals for Israel.
Canada jumped ahead 7-2 after one quarter and never looked back against the United States in what became a 10-goal victory.
Mark Matthews led the attack with three goals and seven points. Shayne Jackson and Robert Church had a pair of goals and four assists each while Dane Dobbie had a goal and four helpers in Canada’s balanced attack which saw eight goal scorers and 11 runners earn at least a single point.
The States’ Kieran McCardle finished with three goals and five points while Blaze Riorden chipped in with a hat trick.
Green Group
The highest scoring game of the opening day involved No. 13 Slovakia taking down No. 16 Scotland 24-14.
Tomas Jeck (three goals, 11 points) Nick Kapusty (six goals, nine points), Noah Hoselton (five goals, eight points) and Denis Englis and Ivan Cernak (four goals, five points apiece) led the charge with multi-goal games.
Scotland’s Cole Paciejewski (seven goals, 11 points) and Iain Vickers (four goals, one assist) led the Scottish attack.
The other Green Group game saw No. 7 Czech Republic score a 29-7 win over No. 19 Mexico.
Jiri Kostal had six goals and Pavel Dosly (two goals, eight points), Vojtech Oulehal (four goals, six points) and Petr Poupe (six assists) led a strong Czech attack.
Juan Contreras and Connor Simon both had two goals and three points for Mexico.
Orange Group
Australia and Finland both scored 20 goals in their respective games to take the early lead in the Orange Group.
Australia, ranked eighth, defeated No. 20 Costa Rica 20-1 while No. 9 Finland prevailed 20-5 over No. 15 Austria.
Matthew Taylor (six goals, eight points), Tristan Rai (one goal, eight points) and Jesse Whinnen (three goals, seven points) led the Aussie attack.
Daniel Mauricio Quesada Rodriguez had the lone Costa Rican goal.
Roope Jokela (two goals, nine assists) and Robert Raittlla (six goals, five assists) had matching 11-point games for Finland. Adrian Balasch (two goals, one assist) and Rintaro Fujita (three assists) had three points apiece for Austria.
The action continues Friday with day 2 set to get underway. Games times are 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. all at Langley Events Centre.
For more, visit www.wilc2019.ca.
Yesterday was so fun we thought we’d do it again! Here’s the slate of games for Day 2 of the 2019 World Lacrosse Men’s Indoor World Championship! #WILC2019 pic.twitter.com/qyS7rB26JL
— 2019 World Lacrosse Mens Indoor World Championship (@WILC2019) September 20, 2019
