Despite a 13-7 loss Wednesday to Japan, a top-10 finish at the FIL world field lacrosse championship is still a possibility for Cole Paciejewski and Team Scotland.
But there's no room for error for the 0-5 Scots, who have fortified their roster with Canadian talent - including the Prince George-born Pacieijewski - for the weeklong tournament in Netanya, Israel.
Scotland will play Philippines on Thursday and will have to win to move on to the ninth-place game Friday against the winner of Thursday's Ireland-Germany game.
Scotland is grouped with the United States (the defending champions who have won the world title nine times), Canada (three-time champions), Iroquois Nationals, Australia and England.
Scotland opened with 18-6 loss last Friday to Australia, then lost its next three pool games - 22-3 to Canada, 11-8 to England, and 14-7 to Iroquois.
This is second time Paciejewski has played internationally for Scotland. He qualified because his father Richard was born in Glasgow and the 24-year-old Cole holds a British passport. He represented Scotland two years ago at the European field lacrosse championships in Budapest, Hungary. That Scottish team finished seventh out of 20, just missing a chance to play for a bronze medal, which was a factor in Scotland's placement in the top-tier Blue pool at this year's world championship.
Paciejewski is playing on offence and in five games has two goals and two assists. He scored against Iroquois and England and had an assist in Wednesday's game against Japan.In the semifinals on Thursday Canada will play Iroquois, while the U.S. is matched with Australia. The winners advance to the championship game on Saturday.
Paciejewski played four seasons of U.S. college field lacrosse in the NCAA from 2011-15 at Pfeiffer University in North Carolina. He now plays in the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association for the RPR Mechanical/JR Construction Bandits. The Bandits opened the best-of-five championship series with a 9-6 win Tuesday over the Westwood Pub Devils. In just 10 games with the Bandits this season he racked up a league-high 55 goals and finished second in the scoring race with 97 points.
