Jacobs in the Quarter Finals

With only two draws left for Team Jacobs the pressure was on to win the last games to acquire a berth in the Quarter Finals at the National Grand Slam of Curling.

Team Jacobs got behind Team Blandford in Draw 8. Jacobs had the hammer to start the match and with a blank in the first end kept the last rock advantage. Blandford stole a single in the 2nd end to lead the 2014 Olympic Gold Medalists by a single point.
Jacobs added another blank in the 3rd end, but Blandford came back with another steal in the 4th end putting Jacbos behind 2 points. Team Jacobs scored a deuce in the 5th end to tie the game at 2 a piece, but lost the last rock advantage going into the 6th end.
Both teams traded singles in the 6th and 7th ends to keep the game tied at 3 each, but Jacobs didn’t have the hammer in the 8th and final end of the draw.
In the 8th end Jacobs stole a single to win the match by a score of 4 to 3 improving their record at the National Grand Slam to 2 wins and 2 losses.

In Draw 9 Jacobs went up against Team Epping and for Jacobs to make it into the quarter finals the team had to win this game. Skip Brad Jacobs won the draw to the button against skip John Epping to have the hammer to start the match.
Jacobs would score a deuce in the 1st end to take control of the game while holding Epping to a blank in the 2nd and only allowing Team Epping to score a single in the 3rd.
With the last rock advantage in the 4th end Jacobs scored a single and then lost the hammer coming into the 5th end which Epping blanked but scored a single in the 6th end so that Team Epping would have the last rock advantage for the 8th end.
Jacobs would score a deuce in the 7th end to keep the lead by a score of 5 to 2. With the last end not played Jacobs won and the team made it into the quarter finals with a 3-2 record.

After the draws were completed here are the final standings heading into the quarter finals:

Team

1. Howard
2. Carruthers
3. Bottcher
4. Laycock
5. McEwen
6. Morris
7. Jacobs
8. McCormick
De Cruz
Gushue
Blandford
Stoughton
Casey
Koe
Epping
Kean
Shuster
Rumfeldt

The matchups for the quarter finals starting at 12:00 PM at the National Grand Slam are:
Glenn Howard (5-0) against Heath McCormick (3-2)
Steve Laycock (3-2) against Mike McEwen (3-2)
Reid Carruthers (5-0) against Brad Jacobs (3-2)
Brendan Bottcher (4-1) against John Morris (3-2)