It wouldn’t be the Original 16 Cash League if there wasn’t at least a mild upset in the first round of the playoffs.
Sure enough, that’s what happened on Wednesday night at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre.
With the opening games of the 10-team league’s post-season taking the ice, Fonger Wealth Management (Nick Cornea, 4-14) pulled off a 7-5 victory over Motion-Golden Mobility (Lorraine Arguin, 8-10) to advance to the quarter-finals.
Arguin took a 3-2 lead out of the third end, but Cornea took control from there, blanking the fourth and then using the hammer to put up a three-spot the following frame. A steal of one in the sixth gave Cornea a 6-3 lead, and after Arguin made things interesting with a seventh-end deuce, Cornea would close things out with one in the eighth.
The other first-round game saw a battle of 4-14 teams, with EMJ Marketing (Joe Gunnis) rolling to an 8-3 win over Walchuk Masonry (Tyler Krupski).
Like the other quarter-final, it was a close battle in the early going, with the teams tied 3-3 through four ends. Gunnis scored one before the break, though, and stole a pair in each of the sixth and seventh ends to bring things to an early conclusion.
Gunnis takes on top-seeded KMS Construction (Ben Gamble, 14-4) in their second-round game, while Cornea will do battle with second-seed Matt Froehlich (14-4).
The Original 16’s other teams played exhibition games on Wednesday night.
Pro-Tec Electric (Stan Barnsley, 12-6) scored five in the sixth end to take a 7-2 win over BTN Accountants (Penny Barker, 9-9), while KalTire (Dustin Woloschuk, 9-9) snapped a 4-4 draw with three in the sixth and would go on to an 8-4 win over John’s Music (Ryan Wenarchuk, 12-6). Froehlich and Gamble didn’t play.
The quarter-finals take place on Wednesday, Mar. 2 with fourth-seed John’s Music taking on fifth-seed BTN Accounting and third-seed Pro-Tec Electric doing battle with sixth-seed KalTire alongside the aforementioned contests. Action begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre.
