Joey Payeur
In one pressure-packed game after another, Chris Silver’s quartet came up with one big shot after another.
But it’s the rare curling team that can keep up that pace without flinching—the kind of team Silver ran into Sunday afternoon.
Three-straight steals were all Sudbury’s Tanner Horgan needed to gain an edge he would not relinquish in beating Silver 5-2 in the final of the Bantam boys’ provincial championship held at the Fort Frances Curling Club.
Silver, along with his rink of third Myron Armstrong (from Stratton) and Fort Frances front end Daniel Vandenbrand (second) and Davis Jackson (lead), won three games in a row while facing elimination to earn a shot at the two-time defending provincial junior champs.
But an inability to do much of anything with last rock cost Silver, who finished fourth at the last two Bantam provincials, against the Horgan rink that included third Jacob Horgan, second Maxime Blais, and lead Scott Foy.
“I’m proud of the boys,” Silver said afterwards as he did his best to stay positive on what was his 16th birthday.
“This is a brand new team this season,” he noted.
“We tried our best and had fun,” Silver added. “It was a really good performance, especially at home.”
The locals were intent on avenging a 12-1, six-end loss to Horgan in round-robin action Thursday night and played a solid first three ends Sunday—holding the Sudbury squad to a 1-1 tie.
In the fourth, Horgan drew around cover to the button with his final stone and took his first lead at 2-1 when Silver wrecked on a guard out front.
Trouble reared its head in the pivotal fifth for Silver.
Armstrong’s first stone just nudged a Horgan rock in the top of the 12-foot before rolling away, leaving Horgan lying two with guards out front.
Left with nothing but a tough draw to the four-foot to salvage the end, Silver pulled the string and left his attempt short of the house to surrender a deuce and put himself in a 4-1 hole.
“If I could do it again, I would have changed a couple of calls,” Silver admitted.
“That was the turning point when they got the two.
“They weren’t making many mistakes after that,” he added.
Horgan then stole another one in the sixth that required a measurement.
Silver made a hit-and-stick for one in the seventh, but Horgan wasted little time running him out of rocks in the eighth to seal the victory.
“That was a great game for a final,” said Horgan, who made up for losing last year’s Bantam provincial final by going a perfect 8-0 at this year’s event.
“It’s difficult for people to understand how hard it is to win one of these,” he added.
“We didn’t have the hammer in the fifth, so we could set the pace and bring the rocks into the house and then set up the guards in front,” he noted.
Silver finished in a four-way tie for second at 4-3 behind Horgan (6-0) after winning a thrilling 6-5 victory over Felix Lasalle (Timmins) in what was a frantic final round-robin draw with every one of the four games impacting the possible playoff scenario.
That set up two tie-breakers Saturday night, with Silver dominating Isaiah Warkentin (Kenora) by a 7-1 score in six ends.
Meanwhile, Christopher Perozak (Kakabeka Falls) played a 1950s-style game in grinding out a 3-1 win over Max Cull (Sudbury).
Silver, who had thumped the previously-unbeaten Perozak 8-1 in six ends on Friday, then blanked him 6-0 in seven ends in Sunday morning’s semi-final.
