Two Cowichan Valley minor lacrosse teams have qualified for their respective provincial championships.
The peewee and bantam Cowichan Thunder squads will contend for the B.C. titles at separate tournaments next month after they both finished among the top two on Vancouver Island.
The peewee B Thunder finished second on the Island after losing 10-7 to the Peninsula Warriors in the gold-medal game at the Cowichan Arena last Sunday. The game remained close until the Thunder took a couple of costly penalties in the third period.
The Cowichan peewees guaranteed themselves a berth at provincials by beating the Comox Wild — a team they hadn’t beaten all season — 10-8 on Friday night.
Head coach Jake Zwaan noted that his club is one of the younger teams in their division, with only five or six second-year peewees. Five of the 15 runners on the roster are girls, which is a rarity in the Island league.
“It’s pretty amazing, considering we’re a co-ed team,” Zwaan commented. “Other teams usually have one or two girls, but not five.”
The peewee provincials will take place in Delta on July 7-10, featuring eight teams. Along with Cowichan, Peninsula and Comox have also qualified, with the potential for a fourth Island team as well.
The bantam B Thunder are guaranteed a spot in provincials as one of the top two teams on the Island, and they are in the midst of a best-of-three series against the Campbell River Tyees to determine who takes the Island banner.
Cowichan won the first game of the series 3-2, but Campbell River came back to tie the series with a 6-3 victory. Game three will be played at Kerry Park Arena this Saturday at 2 p.m.
The bantam provincials will take place in Vernon on July 14-17.