Jacobs rink picks up another win at Olympic trials

Brad Jacobs and his team from the Community First Curling Centre is off to a good start at the 2021 Tim Hortons Olympic trials, which opened Saturday at SaskTel Place in Saskatoon.

The Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden, picked up a 7-6 win over Matt Dunstone of Regina, Sask. on Sunday in the nine-day event which will determine the Canadian representatives for the Winter Olympics in February in Beijing.

Speaking to reporters following the game, Kennedy credited Jacobs and Ryan Harnden for their play in the win.

“Brad played fantastic,” Kennedy said of Jacobs in a Curling Canada-provided media scrum. “It was nice to switch the hammer early and just took control from there. We got a couple of misses by them and capitalized. If anything stands out, (it was that) Ryan played fantastic and Brad made some big shots to allow us to keep control.”

The Jacobs rink got on the board first thanks to a steal in the second end after Dunstone blanked the opening end.

After Dunstone tied the game at one with a single in the third end, Jacobs would score a pair in the fourth and then follow up singles by Dunstone in the fifth and seventh with two more in each of the sixth and eighth ends to take a 7-3 lead.

Dunstone pulled to within two thanks to a pair of his own in the ninth before capping off the scoring with a steal of one in the final end.

“We had plenty of chances, but I didn’t capitalize,” Dunstone said in a Curling Canada story. “Everybody hits so well, so stealing you need a big mistake. We had plenty of chances for deuces and just didn’t capitalize on chances we had.”

“The back end of the game, I started feeling pretty good but there’s no time for that here,” Dunstone also said. “You have to be good for 10 ends. I was good for five and that’s not going to cut it.”

Team Jacobs enters action on Monday with a 2-0 record after opening the event on Saturday with a 9-3 win over Toronto’s John Epping.

“We came out loose,” Jacobs said in a media scrum hosted by Curling Canada. “We read the ice really well. Everyone just really felt comfortable right from the first end.”

Jacobs called the opening-day win “a really great start to the event.”

Team Jacobs returns to action on Monday at 3 p.m. against Brendan Bottcher of Edmonton.

Bottcher enters the game with a 1-1 record after dropping a 6-5 decision to Tanner Horgan on Sunday.