For only the second time in the 13 years since the Optimist U18 Curling Bonspiel welcomed an international field, Ontario will be represented by a pair of teams from Northern Ontario.
Better still, following in the footsteps of siblings Evan Lilly and Kendra Lilly back in 2006, the Sudbury tandem of Kira Brunton and Tanner Horgan will give the 2016 event in Edmonton a decidedly Nickel City feel.
Brunton, along with vice Kate Sherry, second Mikeala Cheslock and lead Emma Johnson, were matched up in a best of three series with the defending OCA (Ontario Curling Association) Bantam champions rink from Ottawa: Kayla MacMillan (skip), Sarah Daviau (vice), Lindsay Dubue (second) and Marcia Richardson (lead).
The Sudbury Curling Club quartet endured an inauspicious start at the Orillia Curling Club, spanked 9-2 by the team that claimed the 2015 U18 World Championship. Undeterred, Team Brunton rebounded in style in game two, posting a convincing 6-1 win of their own, and forcing a third and final game.
The third game split the difference, creating a tense affair, with the momentum swinging back and forth. With both teams throwing well, the MacMillan crew held a 4-2 lead after five ends of play.
The locals rallied to steal one in the sixth, with MacMillan choosing to blank the seventh, but Brunton and company upset the apple-cart with a steal of two in the eighth and final end, posting a 5-4 win.
It's been a busy stretch for Brunton, Sherry and Johnson, who also teamed with skip Megan Smith to post an undefeated 5-0 record two weeks ago in Copper Cliff, ensuring their berth at the NOCA Junior Ladies Curling Championships along with the Krysta Burns and Camille Daly rinks next month in Sioux Lookout.
On the boys side of the draw, the Tanner Horgan grouping that included Jacob Horgan, Maxime Blais and Scott Foy were ultra-confident heading into the showdown with the Michael Morra rink (Sean Armstrong, Grant Fraser, Matthew Morra) of Newmarket.
Not only had the Horgan siblings gotten the better of the Morra tandem at the 2014 OFSAA Championships, but three quarters of the local team are currently leading the Ontario Junior Curling Tour standings after having captured the league last year.
"They (Team Morra) are a very good team, but there is such a difference between Bantam and Junior, with the extra four years of eligibility," noted coach Gerry Horgan. "This past weekend was the All-Ontario Bantam championship, so we were expected to dominate."
And that they did, tripling the Southern Ontario champions 9-3 in a first game that was called in the seventh end, and building up a 6-1 lead after five ends in game two, cruising to victory.
Both the Brunton foursome and the Horgan crew, representing the Copper Cliff Curling Club, will travel to Edmonton from March 30 to April 3 of next year, with the Horgan side making their second visit to this event.
In 2013 in Vancouver, the locals captured silver medals, falling to a team from Connecticut in the final, and beating a team from Seattle in the semi-final. At the junior level, Team Horgan have also made on recent adjustment, with Nicholas Bissonnette joining Horgan, Horgan and Blais, given the academic demands that former second Connor Lawes is facing in his first year at Queen's University.
