Brad Jacobs’ team from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., won its third straight game, to move one victory away from the Page playoffs at the Road to the Roar pretrials on Friday in Kitchener, Ont.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
Brad Jacobs' team from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., won its third straight game, to move one victory away from the Page playoffs at the Road to the Roar pre-trials. Jacobs' national men's championship team earned a spot in the B-Event final on Friday by defeating Brad Gushue of St. John's, N.L., 9-3.
Jacobs and Gushue battled it out for eight ends until Jacobs broke it open with a score of four in the ninth end.
"We were taught at an early age to fight, no matter what, never give up," Jacobs said about finding the resilience to cope with the loss to Greg Balsdon on Tuesday. Jacobs will face Steve Laycock of Saskatoon in the B-Event final.
The winner will take on John Morris, representing Kelowna and Vernon, B.C., in Saturday's Page playoff A-B final, which decide the first men's qualifier for next month's Roar of the Rings Olympic curling trials in Winnipeg.
Renee Sonnenberg battled back from an early deficit and advanced to the Page playoffs with a 10-7 win over Cathy Auld in the women's B-event final.
After giving up a steal two in the fifth and falling behind 6-3, Sonnenberg drew the four foot for the single in six to start her comeback.
Ahead by one in the 10th, Sonnenberg clogged up the four-foot, leaving Auld a difficult shot to tie. Auld's rock rolled too far, giving the team from Grande Prairie, Alta., two more points and the victory.
Sonnenberg will meet A-event winner Kelly Scott of Kelowna, B.C., in the Page playoff A-B game on Saturday. The winner will be guaranteed one of the two remaining women's spots at the Olympic trials
"We were getting beat," Sonnenberg said after the game. "We had to take some risks. And it kind of worked brilliantly for us because we were going to lose if we didn't do something. So we finished up incredibly strong."
"We made some more precise draws and put more pressure on them," she said. "The first three quarters of the game we were chasing them a lot. So we turned that tide, took some risks early by setting up guards and leaving their counters in. They started having to chase us, and it panned out."
Auld, from Mississauga, Ont., moves to the C-Event and had another chance on Friday evening to get through to the playoffs of the triple-elimination tournament.