A couple of big ends by Victoria’s Paul Henderson was enough to push Vernon’s Thomas Love out of the Tim Hortons B.C. Junior Curling Championships Friday afternoon in Parksville.
Trailing by a pair after six ends, Henderson, backed by third Duncan Silversides, second Benton Boychuk-Chorney and lead Jacob Zorn, counted four in seven and three in eight to earn an 11-7 win in their provincial semifinal.
Henderson faced undefeated Cody Tanaka of Abbotsford in Saturday’s gold-medal game.
Love, who curls with third Erik Colwell, second Brendan Chapple and lead Johnathan Schwartz, reached the semis after going 5-2 in the eight-team round-robin.
Following a 2-1 start, the Love rink bounced Matt Schiman 7-3 in an all-Vernon tilt Tuesday night. They kept rolling Wednesday by thrashing Prince Rupert’s Jonathan Loeppky 12-2 in the morning draw.
Love then bowed 10-5 to Henderson before finishing preliminary play with an 8-7 buzzing of Zane Bartlett’s Grand Forks/Invermere rink.
Schiman (third Jesse Monette, second Ben Morin, lead Adam Raber and fifth Brandon Makar) went winless at provincials, ending the week with a 7-3 loss to Loeppky Thursday afternoon.
Following the loss to Love, the up-and-coming Schiman rink suffered defeats to Bartlett (9-7) and New Westminster’s Brayden Carpenter (9-2).
On the junior women’s side, Vernon’s Cierra Fisher finished at 3-4, two wins shy of a tiebreaker.
Fisher, supported by third Sydney Hofer and front-enders Kylie Tokairin and Jaelyn Cotter, split her first two games before falling 12-5 to 2013 Canadian junior champion Corryn Brown of Kamloops Tuesday afternoon. That was followed by a 11-5 loss to 2014 B.C. bronze medallist Shawna Jensen’s Powell River/Juan de Fuca/Delta crew Tuesday night.
The Vernon foursome rebounded Wednesday afternoon by shading Prince George’s Alyssa Connell 9-8. They split their Thursday tilts, losing 5-4 to Victoria/Juan de Fuca’s Mariah Coulombe and doubling Coquitlam’s Briana Egan 6-3 to end on a high note.
Brown, who finished at 6-1, grounded the 5-2 Coulombe rink 7-2 in semifinal action Friday, setting up a Saturday rematch of last year’s final against defending champion Sarah Daniels of the Delta Thistle Curling Club.
The B.C. junior men’s and women’s champions advance to M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors in Corner Brook, Nfld., Jan. 24-Feb. 1.
