Joey Payeur
Chris Silver and his black-and-gold gang are standing on the edge of history.
The Muskie boys’ skip and his team of third Daniel Vandenbrand, second Jason Bazylewski, and lead Davis Jackson dumped the Ecole Secondaire Catholique Theriault Flammes (Timmins) 9-2 margin in six ends this morning in the semi-finals of the OFSAA ‘A/AA’ curling championship in North Bay.
Fort High was assured of at least a silver medal when it faced the Richview Saints (Etobicoke) in the gold-medal final this afternoon.
That matches the best-ever finish for a Muskie team in OFSAA curling, accomplished by the last Fort High boys’ team to make it there in 2011 that was skipped by Isaac Keffer.
“It was a grudge match,” coach Ron Silver admitted about facing the Flammes, skipped by Felix Lasalle, who beat Silver’s rink at the provincial Bantam boys’ championship in Sault Ste. Marie less than two weeks ago.
“But the boys were on fire all day.”
After the first end was blanked, Silver forced Theriault to take one in the second with the hammer.
Then the floodgates opened up.
The Muskies scored a deuce in the third, stole four in the fourth, and then stole three more in the fifth to make it 9-1.
A token single in the sixth for Theriault led to handshakes.
Fort High had finished second in Pool ‘D’ with a 3-1 record—putting them in a quarter-final matchup last night against the E.L. Crossley Cyclones (Fonthill), the first-place team from Pool ‘C.’
The Muskies cruised to an 8-4 victory.
This morning’s other semi-final saw the Saints beat the host Widdifield Wildcats.
That means the Muskies will have to beat the only team to defeat them this week—a 9-3 loss in Pool ‘D’ action earlier yesterday.
“The weather was so warm outside and the ice was terrible,” noted Ron Silver.
“We had a couple of picks and a couple of other rocks that we have no idea what happened to them.
“If we’re going to win, let’s beat the team that [beat] us and that would make it even more sweet,” he reasoned.
The Muskie girls’ rink, meanwhile, had its OFSAA run end yesterday with a 1-3 record to finish tied for fourth in Pool ‘E.’
Skip Erin Tomalty and her rink of third Tory Beaudry, second Anika Beaudry, and lead Andrea Schram still were in playoff contention going into yesterday’s match against the Maxwell Heights Mustangs (Oshawa).
Fort High needed to beat the Mustangs, and also have the Markham Marauders upend the Haliburton Highlands Red Hawks, to squeeze into the playoffs.
But neither scenario played out in the Muskies’ favour as they lost 7-5 to Maxwell Heights while Haliburton doubled Markham 8-4.
