Team Jacobs drops Brier opener

Team Northern Ontario, represented by Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs and his team from the Community First Curling Centre, opened the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier on a tough note on Saturday evening.

The Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, and alternate Lee Toner, dropped a 7-2 decision in eight ends to Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher at the Leon’s Centre in Kingston Saturday in the second draw of the nine-day event.

Bottcher blanked the opening three ends before getting on the board in the fourth.

With Jacobs lying two, Bottcher cleared both Jacobs rocks with his first shot and sat two of his own. After Jacobs wrecked on a guard on his last shot, Bottcher was left with a draw to go up 3-0.

Jacobs got on the board with a single in the fifth end but proceeded to give up a pair in the sixth.

Bottcher sealed the win with a pair in the eighth end after a single by Jacobs in the seventh.

Jacobs spoke of his own struggles against Bottcher following the game.\

“Skipper didn’t play very well,” Jacobs said in a story on Curling.ca. “We played against a great team who really didn’t give us an inch and I found it very difficult on my shots to get results. When that’s going on, it makes it tough to win.

“I, for some reason, didn’t catch on to the speed as best I could have. That loss is on me and I’m just going to throw it out the window because I know we’re better than that and I know I’m better than that.”

The Jacobs rink returns to action on Sunday morning against Bryan Cochrane of P.E.I. at 9 a.m.

The team will then wrap up action on day two in the evening draw, facing Manitoba’s Jason Gunnlaugson.

The tournament features 16 teams separated into two pools of eight teams.

Round robin action continues until Wednesday.

Following action on Wednesday, the top four teams in each pool move on to the Championship Pool, which begins on Thursday afternoon.

After two days of Championship Pool action, the top four remaining teams move on to the playoff round, which begins with Page Playoff action next Saturday afternoon.

Semifinal action is set for noon on March 8 with the final to follow at 7 p.m.