Day 3 of the 2019 World Lacrosse Men’s Indoor World Championship turned out to be the most exciting yet, and not just because of the action on the floor.
Saturday at the Langley Events Centre saw Mexico lose the game, but one of their players took the opportunity of being on the world stage to propose to his girlfriend.
Following Mexico’s 18-7 loss to Slovakia, Diego Hernandez Valenzuela got down on one knee and popped the question to Jessica Lindstrom, much to the delight of his teammates and the fans in attendance in the Fieldhouse.
A great moment captured in photos! @mexicolacrosse pic.twitter.com/z2d5n4mpAY
— 2019 World Lacrosse Mens Indoor World Championship (@WILC2019) September 22, 2019
The day also featured three one-goal games, including one which needed sudden-death overtime to determine a winner.
And finally, one of the four groups have a clear-cut winner.
Yellow Group
It was a historic day for Hong Kong lacrosse as the first-time participants notched their first-ever victory at the World Lacrosse Men’s Indoor Championship.
With the score tied at 10 midway through the third quarter, Hong Kong scored six of the final nine goals to knock off Switzerland 16-13.
The win improves Hong Kong to 1-1 while Switzerland fell to 0-2.
Wesley See Hon Wong led the team with four goals and seven points while Evan Robert Ming-Yan Mok-Lamme and Jordan Shayne Wong each had three goals and three assists.
Switzerland lost despite a monster game for Lukas Heri has he put up six goals and 10 points. Hans Fluehmann finished with three goals and three assists.
The other game in the group saw Ireland improve to 2-1 with a come-from-behind 10-9 victory over Serbia. Both teams have 2-1 records.
Ireland had fallen behind 5-0 after one quarter and trailed 7-3 in the third before closing the quarter on a 4-1 run to knot things up at eight with 15 minutes to play.
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The teams traded goals in the opening minute of the fourth quarter and Brian Gillis’ shorthanded goal with 5:32 play stood up as the winner.
It was one of four goals on the game for Gillis as he and Luke Coppinger combined for all 10 Ireland goals with Coppinger scoring the other six as part of an eight-point game.
Illija Gajic had a hat trick and four points and Stevan Kriss scored twice.
Both goaltenders had solid games with Devlin Shanahan making 36 saves for Ireland while Marko Celic stopped 44 for Serbia. Through three games, Shanahan leads all Yellow Group goals with a 3.74 goals against average and a .905 save percentage.
Green Group
Slovakia sits at 2-1 following an 18-7 win over Mexico, with the loss dropping them to 0-3.
The Slovaks scored the first six goals and never looked back with Tomas Jeck scoring four goals and 10 points, Samuel Postma and Nick Kapusty each had three goals and seven points while Soto Cernak (two goals, four assists) and Noah Hoselton (three goals, two assists) also posting big games.
Connor Simon led Mexico with a goal and five points and Charlie Frattini III had three goals and four points.
Six goals in each of the first two quarters helped Germany build an insurmountable lead as they improved to 2-0 with an 18-6 win over Scotland, which fell to 0-2 with the loss.
Philipp Broz led the way with five goals and he was one of three German players, alongside Justin Wismer and Gustav Weber (who each scored twice) to finish with six points.
Cole Paciejewski and Iain Vickers finished with two goals and an assist apiece for Scotland.
@WILC2019 Day 3 Scores:
Austria 🇦🇹 20 Sweden 🇸🇪 10
Slovakia 🇸🇰 18 Mexico 🇲🇽 7
Ireland 🇮🇪 10 Serbia 🇷🇸 9
Hong Kong ðŸ‡ðŸ‡° 16 Switzerland 🇨🇠13
Germany 🇩🇪 18 Scotland ðŸ´ó §ó ¢ó ³ó £ó ´ó ¿ 6
Israel 🇮🇱 8 England ðŸ´ó §ó ¢ó ¥ó ®ó §ó ¿7
Iroquois 11 USA 10 🇺🇸
Finland 🇫🇮 15 Australia 🇦🇺 10— World Lacrosse (@worldlaxsport) September 22, 2019
Blue Group
Israel scored five times in the first 10 minutes but were held to just three goals over the final 47:01 as England stormed back from a 5-1 deficit to force overtime. Adam Fishman’s hat trick at 1:49 of sudden-death overtime gave his team a huge 8-7 win to improve them to 1-2.
England sits at 0-2.
The winning goal was set up by Jean-Luc Chetner, one of five helpers he had on the game. Bryan Hopper chipped in with a pair of goals and three points.
Will Walker and Tyson Roe finished with two goals apiece for England.
The Iroquois Nationals and United States took turns rallying from large deficits.
The United States got things rolling with an early 5-1 advantage but then watched as their opponent build an 11-6 lead with 7:15 remaining. The US scored the next four goals before running out of time in their bid to extend the game beyond 60 minutes with the Iroquois Nationals improving to 2-0. The US sits at 1-2.
Cody Jamison led his team with three goals and six points but it was his teammate, Tehoka Nanticoke who stole the show, scoring a jaw-dropping, one-handed behind-the-back goal. That was one of three he had on the night.
Warren Hill stopped 48 of 58 shots for the win.
The duo of Joseph Resetarits (three goals, nine points) and Kieran McArdle (three goals, eight points) led the American attack.
Orange Group
Austria doubled up Sweden by a 20-10 score, improving to 2-1 while Sweden fell to 0-2.
Rintaro Fujita and Klaus Hauer both had six goals with Fujita adding eight helpers and Hauer five assists. Marvin Lerch set up seven goals while scoring once.
Kevin Powers paced Sweden with five goals and nine points while Luke McCallion had a pair of goals and six points.
A huge game from Brett Kujala helped Finland became the first team to win their group with a 15-10 victory over Australia with the loss dropping Australia to 1-2. At 3-0, none of the other Orange Group teams can overtake the Finns.
Finland scored eight of the first 10 goals and then withstood an Australian comeback bid, with their opponent cutting the deficit down to two goals at one point in the third quarter.
Kujala scored eight times and Roope Jokela finished with seven assists. Robert Raittila added three goals and seven points. Matthew Taylor (two goals, six points) and Tristan Rai (three goals, four points) led the Australians.
Photos by Vancouver Sports Pictures
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