The run for Team Jacobs has ended.
After announcing earlier this spring that the team would be disbanding at the end of the team, Brad Jacobs and his team from the Community First Curling Centre played their last game on Saturday night.
Competing in Olds, Alta. in the final Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, the Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden, lost in semifinal action to Kevin Koe.
Facing Koe in semifinal action, the Jacobs rink dropped a 4-3 decision to the Alberta-based team.
“I’m emotional,” Jacobs said in an interview with Sportsnet after the game. “It was 14 years for Ryan, E.J., and myself. We’ve had teammates come and go in between. To finish with Marc and Caleb (Flaxey) means a lot to me and I know it means a lot to all of them too. It’s been a great run. Curling has given me everything I’ve ever hoped for and a hundred times more.”
After Jacobs blanked the opening end, the Sault-based rink scored a pair in the second end to open the scoring, but Koe would turn the tide and score a pair of his own in the third.
Koe took the lead with a steal in four, but Jacobs proceeded to tie the game at three with a single in the sixth after blanking the previous end.
The Koe rink blanked the seventh end before getting a single, and the win, in the final end.
Earlier in the day, the Jacobs rink advanced to the semifinal thanks to a 6-2 win over Jason Gunnlaugson in quarter-final action.
Jacobs jumped out to an early lead thanks to a pair in the opening end with the hammer before stealing one more in the second end to take a 3-0 lead.
Gunnlaugson blanked the third end before getting on the board with a single in the fourth.
The teams traded singles in the following two ends before Jacobs sealed the win with a pair in the seventh end.