Determined Austrlians Fall Just Short to Scottish Thistles

In Monday's early game, the Scottish Thistles held off a determined comeback bid by Australia to take a 14-8 win in their opening game of the tournament. 

Paul Ruskoski had more points than Australia had goals to lead the Thistles to the win in their first game of the tournament. Ruskoski scored 5 goals and added 4 assists while Austin Maybee (3 Goals, 1 Assist) and Nate Lewis (1 Goal, 3 Assist) each chipped in 4 Points to lead the Scottish attack. 

[PHOTO: Scotland's Baumley with a shot against Australia's Bleus]

While the Aussies trailed for almost the entire game, they battled back with vigour, being outscored just 4-3 in each of the second and third quarters. That included a stretch where Australia went on a 4-1 run that was capped by a back-to-back impressive transition goals from Austin Longstaff. The native of Narangba, Queensland topped off his game with a power play goal late in the fourth. Longstaff was playing some offensive shifts while Orlando Kernaghan nursed a banged up hand and took on the role of running the top of the power play. He ripped a shot home from distance for the hat trick marker. 

[PHOTO: Players of the Game, Australia Austin Longstaff (left) and Scotland's Paul Ruskoski (right).]

The Scottish Thistles play again on Tuesday, meeting the United States in a battle of the undefeateds at 5:00 PM ET. Australia plays the late game, facing off against their Commonwealth friends Canada at 8:00 PM ET for a Canada Day celebration.

All games are available live on the IIJL World Junior Lacrosse Championship YouTube channel.