Team Jacobs qualifies for Curling Trials final, setting up Battle of the Brads
Brad Jacobs made it to the 2013 Canadian Curling Trials after winning the pre-trials tournament. After earning that final spot, Jacobs won the Trials in Winnipeg, sending his team to Sochi 2014. The team followed it up in Sochi with Olympic gold.
Eight years later, Jacobs is back into the Canadian Curling Trials final, after defeating PyeongChang 2018 Olympian Kevin Koe 8-3 in the semifinal. Jacobs — along with third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden — is one win away from representing Team Canada at Beijing 2022, but will have to get past another Olympic gold medallist to do that.
“There’s no place we’d rather be, nothing else we’d rather be doing than being out here, enjoying the moment, having fun, and making lots of curling shots,” Jacobs said after his win. “Just fighting and battling for every inch for one another.”
The semifinal started with two blanks. In the third end, Koe’s final stone was heavy, giving Jacobs an opening to get four. Jacobs threw the perfect final stone, knocking out Koe’s two red rocks, securing four points.
Team Jacobs didn’t look back from there. After Koe recorded a point in the fourth end, Jacobs continued his hammer efficiency in the fifth. A hard final stone throw resulted in four points for Team Jacobs, their second of the game. Despite Koe recording two in the sixth end, he decided to shake hands, conceding the game to Jacobs.
Coming into the semifinal, Team Jacobs led the field in hammer efficiency with 58 percent. Against Team Koe in the semis, Jacobs was 100 percent.
With the win, Jacobs improves to 8-1 at the Canadian Curling Trials in Saskatoon. Next up, the final against Team Gushue, in the latest edition of the “Battle of the Brads.” Gushue has a slight advantage in the head-to-head with Jacobs, leading 29-27. In their round robin game, Gushue edged Jacobs in extra ends, winning 7-6.
READ: Canadian curlers qualify for playoffs and tiebreakers at Trials
“What’s it going to take to beat those guys? A near perfect performance,” Jacobs said on his matchup with Gushue.
Jacobs comes into the final brimming with confidence. He tied a Canadian Curling Trials record with most points in a single game (12) in his final round robin match against Team Horgan just before his dominant performance against Koe.
The final should be close, as Gushue and Jacobs games often are.
McCarville advances to semifinals via tiebreaker
On the women’s side, two tiebreaker games preceded the semifinal contest happening on Saturday night.
In the morning session, Team Einarson defeated Team Scheidegger for the second time during Trials in the first tiebreaker. After Einarson took a 5-3 lead after eight ends, Scheidegger recorded a triple in the ninth end to go up 6-5 heading for home. With Einarson possessing the hammer, the back-to-back Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion showed her experience, responding with three points of her own to win 8-6.
In the second tiebreaker, Einarson squared off against Team McCarville. After four consecutive blanks to open the game, McCarville recorded a single in the fifth end to open the scoring. With McCarville up 3-2 heading to the final end, Einarson possessed the hammer. McCarville’s final draw gave Einarson an opportunity to steal two to win the game. However, Einarson threw a heavy final stone, only recording one point, forcing extra ends.
On her final draw in the 11th end, McCarville knocked out Einarson’s stones to secure the win.
McCarville takes on Sochi 2014 Olympic gold medallist Jennifer Jones in the semifinal. In the round-robin, Jones defeated McCarville 8-5.
The women’s semifinal is at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday night. You can catch all of the action on TSN and stay up to date with the latest news from Curling Canada.
More to come.