Logan shines in Lacrosse world championship clash victory

The Hong Kong men's lacrosse team beat Scotland 9-7 on the back of four unassisted goals by 19-year-old Logan Ip in their second Pool E matchup to earn their first win of the 2023 World Lacrosse Men's Championship held in San Diego, California.

The Hong Kong team, ranked 27th in the world, put on a fantastic performance to beat the Scots who were ranked 11th last year, after having lost in an 18-goal thriller to Italy in their opening game of the championship last Thursday.

In the match with Scotland at 4am yesterday (HK time), with Hong Kong having won the opening faceoff, it only took two minutes for Hong Kong to find an opener thanks to a goal from captain Kelvin Mak Ho-chun. Hong Kong also won the subsequent faceoff and had a great chance to increase their advantage but it was unfortunately defended when Scotland equalized soon after.

Goaltender Marco Fung saved a shot by Scotland, giving Ip the chance to run up the field to put Hong Kong ahead again with three minutes left in the first quarter. But Jack Crawley scored for Scotland just a minute before the whistle went off and set the tone for what would be a tight battle to the final whistle.

Two goals from Scottish star Daniel McQuade on either side of two Hong Kong goals - including one from Mak and another from Haydn Cheung - meant the teams went into the halftime break in a deadlock at 4-4.

Hong Kong came out in the second half in a high pressure zone defense that did well to stem the Scotland offense, setting themselves up for star attackman Ip to net both his second and third goals of the day five minutes into the quarter. McQuade pulled Scotland back with two more goals before Tony Ko took advantage of a power play to assist Mak, who completed his hat trick and gave Hong Kong a 7-6 lead heading into the final quarter.

Two saves from goaltender Fung kept the Scotland offense out until Daniel McQuade scored his fifth goal of the game to tie the scores for a sixth time. But two minutes later,

Ip capped off a man-of-the-match performance by first assisting Ko to take the lead for the team before scoring his fourth of the day to complete a fantastic display from Hong Kong to earn their first win at the 2023 championship.

"We lost heavily to Italy in the last game, so to win today against a strong Scotland side is a massive boost," said Mak.