Jacobs wins Northern Ontario

Skip Brad Jacobs and his Soo Curlers Association team of third E.J. Harnden, Ryan Harnden and lead Caleb Flaxey won the Northern Ontario Dominion men’s championship Sunday, defeating Matt Dumontelle, 5-2 in the final. Jacobs had finished in first place in the 12-team round robin with a 10-1 mark, while Sudbury’s Dumontelle was second at 8-3. They then met in the Page 1-2 game, as Dumontelle prevailed, 9-8 in an extra end.  That meant Dumontelle advanced to the final, while Jacobs was relegated to the semi-final. After Thunder Bay’s Joe Scharf had eliminated Mike Assad 9-6 in the Page 3-4 game, Scharf met Jacobs in the semi-final.   Jacobs won a close one, 5-4 to set up the rematch with Dumontelle for a berth in the Tim Hortons Brier, March 6-14 in Halifax. The Jacobs team represented Northern Ontario at the 2008 Brier in Winnipeg, with Eric Harnden as skip and Jacobs as the fifth man, winding up with a 3-8 record.  Jacobs, however, played several games at skip and one game at lead during the week.  They also lost last year’s Northern Ontario final to Mike Jakubo. Jacobs made his Brier debut in 2007 in Hamilton, as third (but throwing fourth rocks) for Al Harnden, as the team went 5-6. Northern Ontario has won four Briers since 1927, the last two by Al Hackner, in 1982 in Brandon and in 1985 in Moncton.