With an opportunity to represent Northern Ontario at the Tim Hortons Brier on the line, Team Jacobs opened up the Northern Ontario Curling Association Men’s Provincial Championship on Thursday afternoon with a win.
The Jacobs rink opened the four-day event, which is being held locally at the Community First Curling Centre, with a 12-2 win in eight ends over Joshua Szajewski of the Keewatin Curling in Kenora.
The Jacobs rink has a bit of a different look for the event with third Marc Kennedy out of the lineup.
Kennedy is currently in Beijing where he is serving as an alternate with Team Canada, represented by Brad Gushue, at the Winter Olympics.
The Jacobs rink recruited Manitoulin Island’s Jordan Chandler to fill in.
Chandler is stepping in as the second for the Jacobs rink while E.J. Harnden will move to third and Ryan Harnden remains in his traditional role as lead.
The Jacobs rink also has Caleb Flaxey serving as an alternate at the event.
Against Szajewski, the Jacobs rink jumped out to an early lead, scoring in each of the first three ends, including one in the opening end for multiple-point steals of two in the second end and three more in the third to open up a 6-0 lead.
After Szajewski got on the board with a single in the fourth end, Jacobs extended the lead with two more in the fifth.
Szajewski picked up another single in the sixth end before Jacobs capped off the scoring with a pair in the seventh and a steal of two more in the eighth end.
The Jacobs rink is set to return to action with a pair of games on Friday.
The team will face Trevor Bonot of the Port Arthur Curling Club in the morning draw before wrapping up day two in the afternoon draw against Dylan Johnston of the Fort Frances Curling Club.
The team will then wrap up the round robin with a pair of games on Saturday.
The tournament final is set for Sunday with the time to be determined pending the need for tiebreaker games.