Incredible seven-goal win propels HK to first world lacrosse playoffs

Hong Kong beat Mexico 14-7 in a historic win yesterday to make the top 14 playoffs for the first time at the 2023 World Lacrosse Men's Championship in San Diego, California.

The championship will move from the group stage into the playoffs, where the top 14 teams will fight for the title.

Five of them are seeded in Pool A and will achieve direct qualification, leaving five places for the winners of Pools B to F and four places for the runners-up with the best goal difference.

Wales beat France 7-6 in quadruple overtime earlier on day six to finish second in their pool with a plus-two goal difference.

That meant Hong Kong went into their final group stage game knowing they had to win by at least six goals to improve their goal difference from minus-two to better Wales and advance.

It was an incredible feat for Hong Kong to pull off on the back of a scintillating first quarter in which they set the tone with four unanswered goals.

Dash Tsai set Liam Ferris up from behind the goal to open scoring before doing it all himself to double the lead.

Logan Ip netted another two for Hong Kong, who went into the second quarter with a 4-0 lead.

Mexico pulled one back in the opening 30 seconds of the second quarter but were defenseless as Ferris assisted Ip for his third goal of the game. With 13 seconds left in the quarter, Tsai swiveled, shot and scored to end the quarter with a 6-1 lead. Both teams exchanged a pair of goals in the third quarter -including another goal from Ip in the last three seconds - stretching Hong Kong's lead to 8-3.

Ip scored his fifth of the game just five seconds into the final quarter. Wesley Wong and Evan Mok-Lamme both scored, but four goals from Mexico brought the score to within four goals with four minutes left.

Hong Kong needed at least two more goals to advance to the playoffs. Up to the plate stepped Wong and Ferris to secure the goals the team desperately needed with two minutes left, before Ip added his sixth of the match to seal the deal.

A final win at 14-7 completed Hong Kong's group stage campaign with a record of three wins and one loss.

Assistant coach Jordan Wong said: "Our goal was to be in the top 14 and we did it!"

Hong Kong's first playoff game will be against No 3 seed Haudenosaunee at 10am today, HK time.

adrian.wong@singtaonewscorp.com