REGINA – Team Northern Ontario is in complete control of its playoff fate, six games into the 2024 Montana’s Brier.
The nearly all-rookie team collected its fifth win of the week on Tuesday evening, knocking off Catlin Schneider’s British Columbia foursome 7-4 and skip Trevor Bonot and his squad are alone in first place in Pool A at 5-1.
Two other teams, skipped by Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher and Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers, also have just one notch in the loss column in Regina, but both teams have just four wins.
Bonot, playing in his first Brier, has been the surprise of the field, leading his team into contention and the verge of the playoffs, the top three teams in each pool advancing to the medal round.
He did it largely without hammer in his Draw 12 match against British Columbia’s Schneider, a team that can likely not afford to lose another match and still keep its playoff hopes alive.
The Thunder Bay skip stole one in the first to open the game in Tuesday’s evening draw, an after giving up two n the third, scored singles in back-to-back ends to take a 3-2 lead into the break.
Schneider evened things up with one in the sixth, but Bonot responded with a deuce in seven to go up 5-3.
After scoring one in nine to up his lead to 6-4, Bonot, third Mike McCarville, second Jordan Potts and lead Kurtis Byrd finished off the win with a final steal of one in the 10th.
The Bonot foursome has Wednesday off and resumes action on Thursday against Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone in the morning draw. They’ll finish off against Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin (1-4) on Thursday night.
In other Pool A action, Carruthers downed New Brunswick’s Jamie Grattan 7-3, Bottcher held off Dunstone 7-5 and Ontario’s Scott Howard kept his playoff hopes alive with an 8-3 win over Scoffin.
