THUNDER BAY — The defending Northern Ontario men’s curling champion is down to last-chance territory.
Trevor Bonot, who a year ago was riding high in Little Current, has so far this week been unable to recapture that magic, dropping his second straight decision on Friday morning to fellow Thunder Bay skip Brian Adams Jr.
A slow start proved costly in the 8-5 defeat, a loss that demoted Bonot, lead Kurtis Byrd, second Jordan Potts and third Mike McCarville to the C-side bracket in the triple-knockout event, meaning one more unfavourable outcome and their championship is done.
“We’re just not playing quite as sharp as we’d like to, and having a few unfortunate things go our way,” Bonot said, assessing their play so far at the championship, being staged at the Port Arthur Curling Centre.
“We’re not throwing the rock bad. We’re just not getting the results we’re looking for.”
Adams had Bonot on the ropes from the opening end, when he scored a pair, adding two more with a steal in the second end to taken an early 4-0 lead that his opponent never recovered from.
“The first end it was an unfortunate miss on my last rock, I didn’t get a rock out of the house and gave him the opportunity. The next end the draw to the button, if it curls another inch, we get one. It’s a game of inches out here and we had to fight for every point in that game, and the other team played really well. Hats off to them,” Bonot said.
Adams, who dropped to B-side with a Wednesday loss to Thunder Bay’s Dylan Johnston, is 4-1 this week, the win over Bonot the team’s third straight.
“We had a good start today in the first couple of ends, playing really well. We forced Trevor into a tough shot and we got a miss, that led to a big steal. That set the tone for the game there, those first couple ends.”
It’s all about creating the best path forward as they battle to land a playoff spot and a potential championship win.
“That was our goal, after that one loss, keep plugging away in B. We’ve got to rattle off a few more wins here, but we keep gaining momentum as the week goes on,” Adams Jr. said.
Up 5-1 at the break, they ceded a pair to Bonot in the sixth, but bounced right back with two of their own in the seventh to take a 7-3 advantage. Bonot, with hammer, scored two in the eighth, but Adams upped the lead to three with a single in the ninth and ran Bonot and company out of rocks in the 10th to claim a three-shot triumph.
In other Draw 8 action on Friday, Timmins skip Lauren Mann scored two in the 10th and stole three in the extra end of knock off Thunder Bay’s Ashley Palmer 8-5.
Adams will play the winner of Friday afternoon’s match between Johnston and North Bay’s Jeff Brown. Sudbury-based skip John Epping is playing Sandy MacEwan in the A-side qualifier, while Thunder Bay’s Chris Silver and Gary Weiss battle to stay alive in a C-side match. Frank Morissette and Zach Warkentin, both representing the host city, face a similar fate.
