LITTLE CURRENT, Ont. – Zach Warkentin is trying to pull off the near impossible.
Three games into his run at the Northern Ontario Curling Men's Curling Championship at the Little Current Recreation Centre, Warkentin had collected two losses and one more meant he’d go home empty handed.
At that point, it became a game-by-game mentality – and the wins began piling up.
Warkentin, lead Jamie Childs, second Travis Potter and third Tyler Stewart race out to a 6-0 lead against fellow Thunder Bay curler Brian Adams Jr., and despite having the gap closed to one in the sixth, they held on for a 10-5 win and a spot in Sunday’s semifinal against Thunder Bay’s Trevor Bonot.
It was the sixth straight win for Warkentin, all of them with the possibility of an early exit hanging over his head.
Hey, it brought out the best in his team, he said.
When you’ve got nothing to lose, it takes a heck of a lot of pressure off, Warkentin added.
“When we lost that second game to (Jordan) Chandler it was tough, but the guys were just playing so well. That was a tough loss. Chandler had to make a big shot to beat us, so we knew were playing well,” Warkentin said, moments after ousting Adams Jr. and setting up the all-Thunder Bay semifinal match.
“We looked at the bracket and said one game at a time, one game at a time. It was one win. OK, next one. One win, OK next one. It was just keeping our focus.”
Still six straight wins and a playoff berth weren’t exactly a reality a few short days ago, in the triple knock-out event that on Sunday will crown the Brier representative for Northern Ontario.
“Hopefully (we) get seven and eight. Six, you’ve got to have confidence in your team. We knew we were good, we knew could win games, we knew we could string them together. Obviously this is a heck of a run that we’re putting together.”
Tell that Adams Jr., Chandler, Mike Assad, Ian Deschene, Thuner Bay’s Chris Silver and North Bay’s Matthew Hunt, all of whom were swept out of the competition by Warkentin and his teammates.
“It’s a confident group. We all have faith in each other. We all have confidence that we can make our shots. We’re a good team. We’ve just got to make our shots.”
Warkentin made a double in the second, then stole a pair in the third and fourth ends respectively to lead Adams Jr. 6-0. But the Thunder Bay skip battled back with three in the fifth and stole two in the sixth when Warkentin’s final stone crashed off a guard in front.
It was looking hairy for Warkentin in the seventh. Adams had a hit and stick to leave his opponent facing two and force to draw for one, but was heavy on his final stone an instead gave Warkentin a draw for two
Not surprisingly, given the roll that he’s on, he made it, upping his lead to 8-5. He stole two more in the eight and the two teams shook hands at that point.
The winner of the semifinal will take on defending champion Tanner Horgan on Sunday afternoon.
