It took a little bit of adversity but Brad Jacobs and his team from Sault Ste. Marie's Community First Curling Club is heading back to the Tim Hortons Brier.
Needing three victories on Saturday to get into the championship at the 2018 Northern Ontario Curling Association provincials in Little Current, Ont., the Jacobs rink used a pair of steals to beat Sudbury’s Tanner Horgan 6-5 on Sunday afternoon to advance to the Brier, which begins on Mar. 3 in Regina.
Trailing 5-2 through seven ends, Jacobs would score a pair in the eighth end to pull to within one. A steal of one in the ninth end would tie the game.
In the tenth end, with Jacobs as shot rock and sitting behind a guard, Horgan got past the guard with his final shot but couldn’t remove the Jacobs rock, which was locked up against a Horgan rock just off the button.
The Jacobs rink, which includes, third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden, started the tournament with four consecutive wins before dropping a pair of games on Friday.
In the round robin finale on Saturday morning against Dustin Montpellier of the Copper Cliff Curling Club, Jacobs picked up an 8-5 win to earn a spot in the tie-breaker where he would beat Dylan Johnston of the Fort William Curling Club 5-3 to move on to Saturday’s semifinal.
Jacobs advanced to the final thanks to a 5-3 win over Sudbury’s Jordan Chandler.