Jacobs splits to open final event

In their final tournament together, Brad Jacobs and his Sault Ste. Marie-based curling team opened the Champions Cup with a win and a loss on Wednesday.

Playing in the final Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, the Jacobs rink, which includes third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden wrapped up play on Wednesday with an extra end loss to John Morris, who is skipping the team normally skipped by American gold medalist John Shuster.

Morris scored a single in the extra end to beat Jacobs 7-6.

Jacobs jumped out to a lead thanks to steals of one in each of the opening two ends.

Morris would erase the deficit thanks to a pair in the third end before taking the lead with a steal of three in the fourth.

Jacobs would pick up a pair of singles in the fifth and sixth ends to make it 5-4.

After Morris made it 6-4 in the seventh, Jacobs would force the extra end thanks to a pair in the eighth end.

The Jacobs rink opened the event on Wednesday afternoon with a 7-1 win in six ends against Yuta Matsumura of Japan.

After blanking the opening end, Jacobs scored a pair in the second end to take the early lead.

After Matsumura got on the board with a single in the fourth end, Jacobs opened the game up with three in the fifth before capping the win with a steal of two in the sixth.

Jacobs returns to action on Thursday against Niklas Edin of Sweden in draw eight before wrapping up round robin action on Friday against Ross Paterson of Scotland in draw 11.

The final event of the Grand Slam of Curling season, the Champions Cup features 15 men’s and 15 women’s teams, all of whom won tournaments on tour this season.

The top eight teams on each side advance to the playoff round on the weekend with the men’s final set for Sunday.