Day one is over at the 8-team Provincial Under 18 Curling Championships at the Montague Curling Club, with the Mitchell Schut Boys team and the Rachel MacLean Girls rink, both from the Cornwall Curling Club, winning the first of three qualifying games for the Boys and Girls Sunday championship rounds.

Photo from Team Snow live-stream: Team Snow concedes after coming up short on a draw facing three Team Schut counters in the Boy “A” qualifier game

In the 4-team Boys Division, Team Schut had two decisive victories against Cornwall clubmates, downing the Isaiah Dalton rink 10-1 in six ends, and then blanking defending champion and clubmate Brayden Snow 9-0, also in six ends, in the A Qualifier of the modified triple knockout draw. Team Snow followed a four-ender with a steal of three in an 11-1 six-end win over the Brock Rochford rink from the Silver Fox in Summerside in their opener.

Team MacLean, who were U18 finalists last year, doubled the reigning U16 champs, the Ella Lenentine foursome, also from Cornwall, 8-4 in their first game in the 4-team Girls division, and then beat the Madalyn Easter squad from the Fox 7-3 to earn a spot in the championship round. Team Easter doubled the host club’s Sydney Carver rink 10-5 to advance to that “A” qualifier match.

 With the modified triple knockout format, section winners drop down to compete in the next section. If a team wins all three sections, they will win the event without a championship round. A double section winner will have a “double life” in the championship round, winning the event if they take either game, while their opponent would have to win both. If a team wins all three sections, they will be declared the champion, and the championship round will not be played.

There are three draws on Saturday, with all teams seeing action at 9:30 am, with Dalton playing Snow and Rochford playing Schut in the Boys division, and Carver facing MacLean while Easter takes on Lenentine in the Girls. The winners of each division face off in the “B” qualifying games at 2 pm. All teams are then back in action in the “C” semi-finals at 6:30 pm.

The “C” Qualifier games go Sunday at 9 am, with the Championship Round, if necessary, going at 2 pm and, if needed, 6:30 pm.

Live, end by end results from all draws will be available at PEICurling.com.

Spectators aren’t permitted at this event due to COVID-19 restrictions. Teams Schut and Snow are live-streaming their games on their Facebook pages.