The Nicola Valley Thunder minor lacrosse season is rapidly coming to a close with just one out of the association’s five teams still in action.

The Thunder midgets are scheduled to take on the Shuswap Outlaws in a best-of-three playoff series to decide which team will represent the Thompson-Okanagan zone at the provincial championships, slated for Coquitlam on the July 20-24 weekend.

Game one of the series will take place on Tuesday, July 5 in Salmon Arm, while game two is set for Saturday, July 9, 6:30 p.m. at the Shulus arena. If a third and deciding game is required, it will happen on July 12 in Salmon Arm.

The only other Nicola Valley team to declare for Provincials was the peewee squad. The Thunder lost out in their bid to attend their first-ever B.C. championships, falling to the Shuswap Outlaws two games to one in their best-of-three series this past weekend.

The peewee Thunder got off to a good start versus the Outlaws, winning game one 6-2 at home. Fred Ware paced his team’s attack with four goals, while Jessie Landerkin and Travis Simon added one each.

Unfortunately, the wheels fell off for the Thunder peewees in games two and three, played in Salmon Arm. The Nicola Valley side was pummeled on the floor and on the scoreboard to the tune of 10-0 in the first outing. The deciding game was closer, but the Thunder still came out on the wrong end of a 6-1 decision, with Ware getting the only tally for the Valley boys.

The Thunder bantams closed out their season last Wednesday with a 5-5 tie against Kamloops. Jarod Murphy netted a pair of goals in the well-played game, while singles came from Jesse Cunningham, Marcelo Bose and Liam Clinging.

The Nicola Valley novices were involved in single-knockout divisional playdowns in Penticton on the weekend. The team won its opener 7-3 against Kamloops, but lost its semi-final match-up 9-1 to host Penticton to fall to the sidelines. Scoring in the two games was looked after by Gordon Ware (5), Tyler Simon (2) and Isaac Elias.

The Nicola Valley Minor Lacrosse Associa-tion is holding its end-of-season banquet and awards night on Thursday, 6:00 p.m. at the Shulus arena.