Schedule set for districts; Ely seeded third going into Tuesday night's opener with Esko

Eight teams will begin play Tuesday but only one will emerge at the end of the week as the Eighth District champion and its representative in the upcoming Division II State Tournament.

Host Ely is seeded third and will tangle with Esko in the second half of a district tournament doubleheader Tuesday at Veterans Memorial Field.

The 7:30 p.m. contest, part of Ely's Veterans Night celebration, is one of four first-round games and marks Post 248's first step in a quest to win the program's 12th state tournament berth since 1997.

But first the hosts must break a three-game losing streak which included an 8-0 loss to number-five seed Esko last Thursday.

The Ely-Esko rematch follows a 5:15 p.m. game between second-seeded Two Harbors and number-seven Deer River.  Top-seeded International Falls will meet either Moose Lake or Brookston at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday at Marble, with fourth-seeded Taconite, the defending district champion, taking on southern representative Milaca at 7:30.

The tournament resumes Friday with seven games, five in Ely and two more at Soudan's Legion Field, with two more contests Saturday and the finals slated for 4 p.m. Sunday.

The entire tournament schedule is listed below.

Monday July 21

PLAY IN 6:00 p.m. #8 Brookston at #7 Moose Lake Moose Lake

Tuesday July 22

Game 1 5:15 p.m. #6 Deer River vs. #2 Two Harbors           Ely

Game 2 5:15 p.m. Brookston/M. Lake vs. #1 Int. Falls    Marble

Game 3 7:30 p.m. South rep Milaca vs. #4 Taconite         Marble

Game 4 7:30 p.m. #5 Esko vs. #3 Ely          Ely

Friday July 25

Game 5 10:00 a.m. Loser 1 vs. Loser 4**                 Ely

Game 6 12:15 p.m. Winner 2 vs. Winner 3         Ely

Game 7   1:00  p.m. Loser 2 vs. Loser 3**              Soudan

Game 8     2:30 p.m. Winner 1 vs. Winner 4        Ely

Game 9   4:00 p.m. Winner 5 vs. Loser 6**     Soudan###

Game 10   4:45 p.m. Winner 7 vs. Loser 8** Ely ###

Game 11   7:00 p.m. Winner 6 vs.  WInner 8 Ely

Saturday July 26

Game 12   5:00 p.m. Winner 9 vs. WInner 10**        Ely

Game 13   7:15 p.m. Loser 11 vs. Winner 12** Ely

Sunday July 27

Game 14 4:00 p.m. Winner 12 vs. Winner 13    Ely

Game 15 6:30 p.m. Repeat if necessary           Ely

### - Locations for games 9 and 10 could be flip-flopped in order to keep 

Ely at its home field.

** - Elimination Game