Jacobs splits on day two of Brier

The second day of competition at the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier in Kingston, Ont. saw Team Northern Ontario, represented by Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs and his team from the Community First Curling Centre locally, pick up a split.

The split means the Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, lead Ryan Harnden, and alternate Lee Toner, will enter action on Monday with a 1-2 record.

The Jacobs rink opened the day with a 6-2 win over Bryan Cochrane of P.E.I. in the morning draw.

Cochrane took the early lead with a single in the opening end with the hammer.

After blanking the second and third ends, Jacobs took the lead with a pair in the fourth and extended the lead with a team of one in the fourth.

Cochrane would blank the following two ends before cutting the Jacobs lead to 3-2 with a single in the eighth end.

Jacobs would seal the win with three in the ninth.

In the evening draw against Manitoba’s Jason Gunnlaugson, the Jacobs rink dropped a 6-5 decision after Gunnlaugson scored a pair in the 10^th end to pick up the win.

Gunnlaugson took the lead in the opening end, scoring a pair with the hammer.

The teams would trade singles over the next four ends as Gunnlaugson took a 4-2 lead into the sixth end.

Jacobs proceeded to take the lead thanks to three in the end.

The 5-4 Jacobs lead would hold into the final end as Gunnlaugson blanked the next three ends before picking up the win in the final end.

The Jacobs rink returns to action on Monday with just one game, facing Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy in the evening draw.

The tournament features 16 teams separated into two pools with round robin action continuing until Wednesday.

The top four teams in each pool at the conclusion of the round robin will advance to the Championship Pool, which begins on Thursday afternoon.

After two days of Championship Pool action, the top four remaining teams will move on to the playoff round. The Page Playoff games are set for Saturday afternoon and evening with the semifinal set for Sunday afternoon and the final taking place on Sunday evening.