5TH PLACE GAME - England 10 Israel 7 - BOX SCORE
COQUITLAM - Austin Hudson scored five goals and older brother William made 11 saves as England came back in the second half to defeat a feisty Israel team 10-7 in the fifth-place game of the 2016 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) Under-19 Men's Lacrosse World Championships presented by Novus on Saturday July 16.
"We weren't playing to our full potential in the first half," said Austin Hudson. "We got down kinda early. Going into halftime, Coach (Paul Coups) pulled us together and was basically, 'you've got to play some England Lacrosse' and we really picked it up in the second half, started playing for each other and we got the result that we wanted."
Israel jumped out to a 4-2 half-time lead, thanks in large part to great goalkeeping from David Metzger, who finished with 12 saves including several worthy of the highlight reel in the second half, and long-stick midfielder Noah Knopf who scored two first-half goals.
But England stormed back in the second half, on a 5-1 run in the third quarter.
"I think the defence started to loosen up a little bit and, you know, great job with the middies, they were starting to look inside, we got those quick feeds and I was able to find some space and put it away," Austin Hudson said of the second half adjustments. "Our defence started tightening up, the offence didn't really feel the scoreboard pressure during the second. We started taking more time on offence and the goals came from sets... We came out and got two or three quick goals and from there we weren't looking back."
Other England scoring came from Alex Russell (1G), Elliot Leonard (1G), Tim Collins (1G, 1A), Harry Dyson (1G) and Zach Peng (1G, 1A). James Ready added two assists.
For Israel, Nick Shulkin added three assists, with goals coming from Knopf (2G), Sagi Hashai (2G), Alex Berkowitz (1G), Alon Bechor (1G) and Ilan Hascal (1G). Faceoff specialist Zachary Ornstein went 14-for-17 at the faceoff X.
Both teams battled hard in a physical and intense game.
It was Israel's first trip to the U19 worlds and they finish in sixth place. England finishes in fifth. And while it may not of have been the performance they wanted, they played their best game at the end.
"It's always disappointing starting off the way we did," said Austin Hudson. "(Going) 0-4 is tough, but we fought back and won the games that we needed to. We kept saying, 'do it for the guys four years from now, give them the opportunity to play in the Blue Division' and we did ourselves with a win."
"It's awesome," he added of the overall experience. "I know we're going to go out tonight and celebrate. We're definitely in a good mood. I'm totally excited."