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Team Jacobs eliminated from National

It was a tough week for Team Jacobs on home ice at the National
2017-11-17 Jacobs vs. Mouat AM
Photo courtesy Anil Mungal/Sportsnet

It was a disappointing finish to what was ultimately a disappointing week on home ice for Brad Jacobs and his rink from the Community First Curling Centre locally.

A pair of three-point ends, which included a crucial triple in the fifth end, was the difference as the Jacobs rink dropped an 8-5 decision to Bruce Mouat of Edinburgh, Scotland on Friday night in the National.

“We gave up two threes and you just can’t do that,” said Jacobs. “It’s the little mistakes and you can’t make mistakes. You have to curl 90-plus (per cent) as a team if you want to win.”

For Mouat, scoring three in the opening end eased any nerves the young team may have had facing the reigning Olympic champs.

“It’s probably one of the biggest wins I’ve ever had,” Mouat said. “They’re up there with the best in the world and we’re just coming through so it’s really exciting to play these teams.”

Mouat called the three in the fifth end a key in the win.

“It was quite a big momentum shift,” Mouat said. “We were fortunate to have that in our pocket and to come home three-up was nice.”

Team Jacobs second E.J. Harnden added that it was a disappointing week for the local rink at the third Grand Slam of Curling event of the season.

“It’s just disappointing to put together the performance all week,” said Team Jacobs second E.J. Harnden. “It was nowhere near our potential and enough to get ourselves into a playoff position.”

“You don’t get this opportunity to do this very often so it’s disappointing to play the way we did,” Harnden added. “We are where we should be based on how we played.”

In other tie-breaker action on Friday night, Mike McEwan of Winnipeg scored five in the sixth end to beat Greg Balsdon of Kingston, Ont. 9-2 in six ends.

The other tie-breaker saw John Epping of Toronto, Ont. beat Pat Simmons of Winnipeg 7-5 after scoring a pair in the eighth end.

The Jacobs rink, which includes third Ryan Fry and lead Ryan Harnden, got into the tie-breaker thanks to a 7-2 victory over William Lyburn of Winnipeg.

Jacobs would steal one in each of the opening two ends before a steal of three in the fourth and one more in the fifth to take a commanding lead en route to the win.

Jacobs said after the round robin win, “it was nice to get on the ice a little bit earlier” after playing in the evening draws on the opening three days of the event.

“Playing the 8 o’clock games three days in a row was pretty tough,” Jacobs added. “We were all excited to get on the ice a little earlier. We had a lot of good energy.”

Saturday’s schedule sees women’s quarter-final action begin at 1 p.m. The women’s quarters will see Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont. face Binia Feltscher of Flims, Switzerland. Rachel Homan of Ottawa take on Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg will meet Alina Paetz of Zurich, Switzerland, and Val Sweeting of Edmonton will take on Chelsea Carey of Calgary.

The men’s quarter-finals at 5 p.m. will see Jason Gunnlaugson of Winnipeg face Epping, Chang-Min Kim of South Korea will face Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg, Brad Gushue of St. John’s, Nfld. will face McEwen and Kevin Koe of Calgary will face Mouat.

In Friday’s morning draw, a steal in the eighth end lifted Feltscher to a 5-4 win over Bingyu Wang of Harbin, China, Kerri Einarson of Winnipeg scored three in the eighth end to beat Jacqueline Harrison of Mississauga, Ont. 7-6.

Friday’s noon draw saw Paetz score a pair in an extra end to beat Julie Tippin of Woodstock, Ont. 9-7, Jones beat Scheidegger 8-4 in seven ends, Homan beat Winnipeg’s Michelle Englot 6-5, and Carey beat Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont. 11-5 in women’s action. In the lone men’s game of the draw, Epping beat Kim 4-1 in seven ends.

The final round robin draw of the tournament also saw Balsdon beat McEwen 5-2, John Morris of Vernon, BC beat Gushue 5-2, Gunnlaugson beat Greg Drummond of Stirling, Scotland 10-7 in an extra end and Carruthers beat Simmons 6-5.


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Brad Coccimiglio

About the Author: Brad Coccimiglio

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Sports Journalism program, Brad Coccimiglio’s work has appeared in The Hockey News as well as online at FoxSports.com in addition to regular freelance work with SooToday before joining the team full time.
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