Jacobs rink remains in the Brier hunt

With one more day of Championship Pool action on tap, wins will be crucial for Team Northern Ontario, represented by Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs and his team from the Community First Curling Centre.

Team Jacobs, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, and alternate Lee Toner, picked up a split on Friday in the opening day of Championship Pool action at the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary.

The Jacobs rink opened the day with a 7-2 win over Team Canada, skipped by Brad Gushue, 7-2 in eight ends.

The Jacobs rink opened the scoring with a pair in the opening end with the hammer.

Gushue got on the board with a single in the third end.

After blanking the fourth end, Jacobs extended the lead with another pair in the fifth end.

Gushue cut the lead to 4-2 with a single in the sixth end, but Jacobs capped off the scoring with three in the eighth end to seal the win.

“We caught him in a little bit of an off game,” Kennedy said in media availability provided by Curling Canada, “but our front end played great and put them in some tough positions all game long. Credit to those guys for doing that. We’ll take Brad (Gushue) being off for a game because it doesn’t happen very often.”

Jacobs called the win “our best game of the week.”

“That’s something really important at this stage,” Jacobs added. “The pool that we were in and coming out of there 5-3, we learned a lot. We’re battle tested for the championship pool and we’re just excited to still be in this. We know what we have to do. Our destiny is in our own hands. Our backs are against the wall. We’re just going to keep playing hard and fighting for everything we’ve got.”

In Friday’s evening draw, the Jacobs rink dropped an 8-5 decision to Team Wild Card2, skipped by Kevin Koe.

Trailing by one with the hammer, Koe made a double in the 10th to pick up the victory.

With the split, the Jacobs rink holds a 6-4 record heading into the weekend.

Team Jacobs is set to return to action for a pair of games on Saturday.

In the 2:30 p.m. (eastern time) draw, Jacobs is set to face Team Saskatchewan, skipped by Matt Dunstone, before facing Team Ontario, skipped by John Epping, in the evening draw at 8:30 p.m. (eastern time).

In other action during the afternoon draw, Team Manitoba, skipped by Jason Gunnlaugson, beat Team Ontario 7-6.

Team Alberta, skipped by Brendan Bottcher, beat Team Wild Card2, skipped by Kevin Koe, 8-7 in an extra end.

Team Wild Card3, skipped by Wayne Middaugh, beat Team Saskatchewan 9-5.

In other action in the evening draw, Team Ontario beat Team Wild Card3 10-8.

Team Canada beat Team Manitoba 12-2.

Team Saskatchewan beat Team Alberta 8-7.

Teams carried over their records from round robin play into the Championship Pool.

Following a pair of draws on Saturday, the three teams with the best records will move on to the playoff round on Sunday with the team with the top record advancing directly into the final on Sunday evening.