Vernon curlers Erik Colwell and Ben Morin are in a provincial curling final for the second time in 2019.
The pair, who lost the B.C. Junior Men’s Final to eventual Canadian and World champion Tyler Tardi of Langley New Year’s Day at his home Vernon Curling, have reached Sunday’s final at the B.C. U18 Boys Curling Championships at the Juan de Fuca Curling Centre in Colwood, near Victoria.
Colwell’s Vernon-Kamloops-Invermere rink of third Mitchell Kopytko, second Morin and lead Tyler Powell will face Hayato Sato of New Westminster at 10 a.m. in the gold-medal game.
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Colwell went 5-2 in the round-robin of the eight-team field to clinch a playoff spot.
The team was on a collision course with Sato as both teams started 5-0 and were scheduled to meet in the final round-robin game Friday afternoon. But Colwell lost his last two games, 8-4 to Johnson Tao of Richmond and 8-4 to Sato, who scored four in the opening end.
Both teams were 5-1 going into the match as Sato suffered his only loss in Draw 6, 3-2 to Alex Duncan-Wu of New Westminster.
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Sato got the bye to the final for finishing atop the standings.
Colwell, Duncan-Wu and Connor Deane of Delta all finished 5-2. Colwell got a bye to the semifinal after having defeated both rinks in the round-robin. Deane beat Duncan-Wu 5-2 in the tiebreaker to advance to play Colwell in Saturday’s semifinal.
Colwell jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three ends, then used his last rock in the eighth and final end to score one for a 5-4 victory.
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