Victorious

So this past Wednesday, we were all hyped up about the game. They were the number one team in their division, with a record of 3-0, and we were number two in ours, with a record of 2-1. It was the biggest game of our season so far, and we couldn't wait. We had been doing pretty well in the previous games, steadily improving with each time we played. Jonathan was still by far the best, but Connor and I had continued to decrease the amount of ends until we began throwing in the house. We were cautiously optimistic about this match, understanding that they had the better record.

We left practice and headed to the gas station to pick up some drinks. We were a little behind schedule, and hurried over to Subway right next to the ice center. After getting our sandwiches and a few cookies for the team, we ate pretty fast. Max, our coach and photographer, had followed us up there as well. We went into the ice center, grabbed our brooms and sliders and got on the ice. As a team, they definitely looked good and had an air of talent and experience. Maria decided we'd have the same lineup as last time, Connor, Me, Jonathan, and Maria. Connor, being our lead, flipped the coin; they called heads, and heads it was. I'm not quite sure if they were just cocky, but they chose the color of the stone as opposed to taking the hammer.

The first end we scored one point, both of our defenses were quite good and the entire game would be a low-scoring game. In the second end, we didn't go for points, just made sure they only scored one so we could repossess the hammer. In the third end, Connor led off with a great shot, nearly perfectly lying on the button. His next shot was commendable as well, lying in the eight foot ring to the left of the button.

Maria had told me to throw a guard to protect the two-stone lead we had. I threw just a bit too hard and it landed right in the house, not a bad mistake at all. On my next throw, I threw much lighter hoping to get a blocker this time. Maria thought it was going fast enough so she told the sweepers to hold off. The stone landed inches from being past the hog-line, but close just wasn't good enough and that stone was out. By the completion of the end, we had scored a point.

We followed that up with another point in the fourth end. This end was also the second time Jonathan hit Connor's stone out, this one was, however, outside of the house and quite wide to the left. In the fifth end, the main highlight of this end was also the most controversial point. It was the very last stone of the end, and they had the hammer and we were lying one. Their stone came in at a takeout weight and knocked out our stone. This would have made them be lying two, but one of the sweepers, Jason, had burned the stone. He immediately pulled the stone out, thinking that that move would disqualify the stone. Maria was the most experienced between our teams, and she replied that the stone wouldn't count because of the burn. After she had walked away for a second, I overheard the player who burned the stone saying he didn't think that was the right call because if anything the burn would have slowed the stone, decreasing its ability to take out our stone, but  he didn't make any further complaints on the matter. I talked to Maria afterwards, and she said that if the stone had come to rest in a scoring position, she would have let it stay. But it hadn't so it didn't matter. So now, we were only up by one, a very small lead for us. In the sixth end, there were lots of take-out weight stones from the other team that missed our stones by mere inches. We had the hammer, but their skip was really good. He threw his last shot to knock out our stone and put his closer than all our stones. He hit our stone out, but it didn't hit well enough
to be closer than our other shot rock. That put us up by two to take the win. If they had made their final shot and taken one in the last end, we would have had to throw a tie-breaker shot, probably by either Maria or Jonathan. But we had secured our win, a very close match indeed. This was their first loss, and put their record the same as ours. We are now in a three-way tie for first. The two matches we have coming up are going to be just as nerve-wracking, as we play the other two teams in our tie for number one. We're really excited for the two upcoming matches and consequential two-week tournament.

Good Curling
-Phil