The McMaster Marauders men's curling team went 1-1 on the first day of the OUA Championship round robin.
In their initial match of the tournament, the Marauders unfortunately fell 6-3 to the Queen's Gaels. McMaster began the competition with the hammer, but a determined Gaels team stole the first point. The Marauders used their advantage in the second end effectively, scoring two points and taking the lead from Queen's. However, the Gaels didn't allow McMaster to be ahead for long, scoring two points in each of the next two ends, bringing the score to 5-2.
However, the Marauders didn't give up after being down by three — with the hammer again in their control, the men in maroon added another point to their total in the fifth end. After a scoreless sixth, the match ended early, just making it to a seventh end, where Queen's added one more tally to cement their 6-3 win.
Though their day didn't begin with a victory, the Marauders went into their second match with perseverance, taking on the reigning silver medalists, the Brock Badgers. McMaster didn't let Brock's 2020 performance intimidate them though and came away with a close 5-4 victory.
Without the last stone in the first end, McMaster had to ramp up their game strategy, which was proven successful as they stole the first two points of the game in the first and third ends. Brock finally made use of the hammer in the fourth end, earning their first point, but McMaster came right back to add security to their score in the fifth.
With the match at 3-1 going into the sixth end, Brock needed to make a quick comeback to stay in the game. Holding the advantage, the Badgers added two tallies to their score, closing the gap between them and McMaster, but the Marauders didn't let it last long, scoring two points themselves in the seventh. In a last stitch effort to take the game back, Brock scored one point in the last end, but they couldn't surpass the Marauders, who won the game in the end.
McMaster will continue preliminary play on Saturday with matches against the Toronto Varsity Blues and the Rams at 9am and 2pm, respectively.
