Scotland Shocks Canada in First Quarter Explosion Go on to Win

In Wednesday rematch of last year's IIJL World Junior Lacrosse Championship Gold Medal Game, the Scottish Thistles stunned Canada by taking a 7-0 lead just 4:25 into the game. Far from turning into a rout, though, the final game of the 2025 WJLC round robin became a nail-biter that saw the Scots eke out a 16-15 win. 

The game was intense, contentious, and thrilling. The game also served a just a prelude to Thursday night's first Semi-Final, in which both teams already knew they would be playing. 

With the United States having already clinched first place in the Round-Robin with a perfect 3-0 record, and Australia at 0-3, Canada and Scotland were already locked in to their Semi-Final matchup, which will face off at 5:00 PM ET Thursday and can be seen live on the WJLC YouTube channel, as can all the games in the championship.

Scotland got goals from seven (7) different players in their opening run, at which point Canada pulled starting goalie Ty Peterson. The move helped to turn the tide, as Alexander De La Ronde scored a little over a minute later on the dip and dunk move that has helped him lead all scorers in the tournament to this point, he has 10 Goals and 12 Assists for 22 Points in 3 Games. 

Austin Sheen and Kieryn Noppin followed with goals for Canada, but Scotland responded with goals from Austin Maybee and Cohen Visheau – each of whom wound up with 4 Goals in the game – to extend their lead to 9-3. De La Ronde added one more before the end of the period to create an incredible total of 13 Goals in the 1st Quarter. 

The scoring pace slowed over the next 30 minutes… but not by all that much. Scotland opened the second quarter scoring through Maybee, who by the end of the game would have 10 Goals in his last two contests and 13 in total to lead the tournament. The Canadians took control for most of the quarter, though. They scored a pair of power play goals, the put up the last 4 Goals of the period to win the quarter 6-2, bringing the score to 11-10 at half time. 

Canada kept their run going to start the third, even though they put a player in the penalty box early on. Hayden Goldthorp scored shorthanded on an assist from Sam Neely, who wound up with 7 helpers in the game, to tie the score. 

While they got that one shorthanded marker, time in the penalty box proved to be a major factor in Canada's undoing in the game. After Goldthorp scored, Paul Ruskoski (3 Goals and 4 Assists in the game) and Maybee put up power play goals. Canada took a total of 13 penalties, including three majors, in the game. Two of those majors were roughing calls against Mason Myers, resulting in him being ejected. 

As a result, Scotland wound up scoring 6 power play goals and adding one on a penalty shot.

The Thistles controlled much of the third quarter and took a 16-12 lead into the final 15 minutes. 

The fourth quarter looked like a completely different game. While the goal totals by quarter had been 13 in the first, 8 in the second and 7 in the third, Sheen's third of the game was the only tally for almost 12 minutes of the fourth. 

[PHOTO: Players of the Game - Scotland Cohen Visheau and Canada Cody Merritt.]

Then De La Ronde struck again, scoring on a jump shot from outside to make the score 16-14. Cody Merritt scored his fourth goal of the game – all of them on underhand shots and three of them just inside the bottom right corner of the net – to make the final 2:08 even more intense. 

But both Jaret Jawor for Scotland and Colton Ferguson for Canada managed to hold the shooters off the board the rest of the way. 

The animosity developing between the teams was palpable, and it sets the stage for what should be an electric rematch Thursday in the first semifinal.