Crewson headed to provincial high school curling playdowns

After losing the NorWOSSA gold-medal game to Dryden just a few weeks ago, and then dropping another decision to them to open the NWOSSAA playdowns in Thunder Bay, Fort Frances skip Bill Crewson was hoping to get another crack at his closest rival.
So after Crewson had already closed out his round-robin portion of the playdowns with a 4-1 record, he idly sat hoping Dryden would knock off Port Arthur in a battle of 3-1 teams.
The winner would get a date with Crewson in the championship game.
“We really wanted to play them again in the final,” said Crewson from his home late last night. “We really wanted to beat them.”
And beat them they did.
Crewson jumped out to a quick 3-1 lead after three ends against his Dryden counterpart, but faltered in the fourth, allowing Dryden to score three and take a 4-3 lead.
Dryden then stole another in the fifth to take what appeared to be a comfortable 5-3 lead after five ends.
But Crewson stormed back to score three of his own in the sixth to regain the lead. In the seventh, Crewson added a steal of one to seal the 7-5 victory.
Crewson said his rink, which has been together for the past three seasons, didn’t change their strategy going into the final.
They had curled well the whole playdowns and were confident they would advance to the all-Ontario curling championships in Midland later this month.
After opening with a slim 7-6 loss to Dryden Sunday evening, Crewson and his rink, which includes Chris Matheson (third), Joel Perron (second), Matt Gushulak (lead), and Tyler Bell (fifth), stormed back to defeat Terrace Bay 9-4.
Then they reeled off consecutive 7-2 wins over Port Arthur, Hammarsjold, and Nipigon to reach the final.
In girls’ action, Laura McTaggart’s rink dropped a 5-0 decision to Nipigon in one of the two tie-breaker games. McTaggart’s rink, which included Jessica Ross (third), Shauna Cuthbertson (second), and Sarah Gushulak (lead), opened the playdowns with an 8-0 win over Kenora before dropping a 6-3 decision to St. Ignatius.
They then defeated Nipigon 9-3 and Marathon (no score was available), but faltered in their last game against previously winless Fort William (again no score was available).
A win would have earned them a berth into the all-Ontario’s, but the loss dropped them into a four-way tie for first.