Team Jacobs earns Brier berth (update, 4 photos)

Brad Jacobs and his team from the Community First Curling Club in Sault Ste. Marie has earned another appearance in the Tim Horton’s Brier.

Team Jacobs, which features third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden beat Jordan Chandler of the Sudbury Curling Club 5-0 in the final of the 2016 Northern Ontario Curling Association (NOCA) Men’s Championship on Sunday afternoon.

After posting a 6-1 record in the round robin, Jacobs earned the chance to move directly into Sunday’s final.

Jacobs opened with a pair in the first end to take the early lead.

“We know what our chances are like when we score two or three in the first end, even if we score one point really,” Jacobs said. “It’s important for us to get a lead. We were able to do that in this game and this week, especially in the four or five games and we were able to run away with some easy wins.”

After Chandler blanked the following three ends, Jacobs would steal one in the fifth to increase the lead.

“We got fortunate in the fifth when they had a great end set up,” Jacobs said. “We made two good ones on my last and got a break when they tried the double and blank and missed and from there it was like ‘Let’s just keep control of this game and finish it off.’”

Blank ends in the sixth and seventh led to Jacobs stealing two in the eighth and handshakes as Chandler conceded prior to the ninth end.

Chandler advanced to the final after a semi-final victory over Colin Koivula of the Port Arthur Curling Club in Thunder Bay.

Chandler would say that missed opportunities were an issue for the Sudbury-based rink.

“We’re very disappointed, not at the result, but in the way we played,” Chandler said. “Probably not our sharpest game of the week. Our communication was a little off and they (Team Jacobs) just weren’t missing anything.”

With the win, Team Jacobs advances to the 2016 Tim Horton’s Brier which opens on Mar. 5 at TD Place in Ottawa.

Jacobs said a break isn’t on the schedule leading into Ottawa,

“We’re really going to train hard. We’re going to be in the gym every day, on the ice every day and working extremely hard just to get that much sharper, that much more precise on everything that we do,” Jacobs said. “Going through the play downs is a building process and you want to continue getting better each game and we definitely have little room for improvement as a team going into the Brier and we will work on any of the kinks that we have and give it all we got in Ottawa.”

This marks the eighth Brier appearance to Jacobs and second consecutive appearance after missing the 2014 event due to the Sochi Winter Olympics.

The Northern Ontario representatives kick off the tournament on opening day in the second draw against Steve Laycock of Saskatchewan.

Other teams in the event include Pat Simmons (Team Canada), Glenn Howard (Ontario), Mike Kennedy (New Brunswick), Adam Casey (Prince Edward Island), Jamie Koe (Northwest Territories), Brad Gushue (Newfoundland and Labrador), Jean-Michel Menard (Quebec), Jamie Murphy (Nova Scotia), Robert Smallwood (Yukon) and Wade Kingdon (Nunavut).

The representatives for Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia were also to be determined on Sunday.

Kevin Koe won the Alberta final, beating Charley Thomas 8-4 to earn the Brier berth.

Mike McEwen won the Manitoba final, beating Matt Dunstone 4-2 in the final to advance to the Brier.

In British Columbia Jim Cotter is slated to meet Sean Geall in the provincial final on Sunday evening.

The teams from the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut and Yukon will compete in a pre-qualifier ahead of the tournament. The winner will take the final spot in the 12-team event.

With files from Jazz Mathon for Village Media