Another exciting season of Merritt minor hockey kicked off on the weekend with a pair of exhibition games at home.

On Saturday, the Murray GM bantams fell 4-2 to visiting South Okanagan. Merritt goal scorers were Justin Tighe and Anthony Tulliani. Head coach for this year’s local bantam reps is Bill Kelly.

The next day, Merritt’s Ramada Inn peewee reps battled South Okanagan to a 7-7 draw in a very clean game that saw a total of just 10 minutes in penalties assessed. The visiting Rockets were last season’s OMAHA champions.

The peewee game was a close one from beginning to end with the two teams tied 2-2 and 6-6 after 20 minutes and 40 minutes respectively.

Merritt scorers were Talon Zakall with the hat trick, Spencer Vaughan (2), Anthony Michel and Breanna Ouellet.

Carson Lang and Bryce Garcia shared the netminding duties for Merritt’s peewee team, which is being coached by Wayne MacDonald and Murray Scollon.

More exhibition games are currently being arranged for Merritt’s rep teams this weekend. Check the schedule at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena for more details.

Merritt Minor Hockey Association registrar Elaine Gill reported that 234 players are presently signed up to play coed hockey this season.

There will be mixed rep and house teams in all divisions from initiation to midget.

Gill stated that there will also be both atom-peewee and bantam-midget all-female teams.

The MMHA is currently looking for more coaches for its house teams, and for more officials.

Interested coaches should contact coaching coordinator Mike Mouland at (250) 378-7622, while potential officials (ages 12 and older) need to contact referee-in-chief Doug Hardy at (250) 378-8281 in order to pre-register.

A one-day officiating course run by BC Hockey is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 28 at NVIT, running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.