The Waterloo men's curling team used a 5-point fifth end to power past the Trent Excalibur by a score of 7-4 in the OUA gold medal match on Monday at the Guelph Curling Club.  Skip Jake Walker (Minden/) led his team to their second straight OUA Championship Banner in the process and will advance to the CIS Championship hosted by Thompson Rivers University (March 20-24) in Kamploops, B.C.

Waterloo went 5-1 in the round robin play before slipping past the Carleton Raven's 5-4 in this morning's semifinal match up, setting up a championship battle with the Excalibur who cruised past Queen's in the other semifinal.  Walker with his third Edward Cyr (Haliburton/), second Jordan Moreau (Midland/) and lead James Freeman (Brantford/) played solid curling in the final to secure the gold medal.

“It feels really good,” said Warriors skip Jake Walker (Minden/) on their win. “We went into that game knowing there wasn't any pressure to make it to CIS. We really did want to win it to defend our championship and keep that banner in our home.”

Semifinals vs. Carleton

This was a difficult game to watch and likely a harder one to play as the Warriors went from a position of strength to one where they needed to steal to win the game. Going into the 4^th end break, the Warriors led by a score of 3 – 1 and forcing the Ravens to a single in the 5^th were in control of the game. In the 6^th end, the Ravens corner froze the Waterloo shot stone in the back 4 foot with Jake looking at drawing for his single. A bit heavy and some energetic sweeping and our last stone jammed giving Carleton the steal.

The 7^th end was a clutter with lots of rocks in play. Brett Lyon-Hatcher threw a bump back with his last rock to lie one with Waterloo posting second and third points. Jake elected to try a tricky raise take-out and missed by an inch leaving Carleton with another steal to lead after the 7^th end, 4 – 3. In the 8^th end, Carleton played very well and forced to take a single, the Warriors went into the extra end tied without hammer.

Carleton played the extra end well and, with an unfortunate hogged rock by our vice, were able to clear all stones out of play. With his final rock (and no other stones in play) Jake drew to the back eight foot. Carleton's skip threw a lighter-than-expected take-out and cleared our and his rocks out of the house. This forced a second extra end.
 
The final end saw some great shots played and, with his first stone, Brett Lyon-Hatcher was able to clear all rocks out of the house but left a centerline Waterloo guard. Jake Walker (Minden/) drew around the guard to the back four foot setting up a draw for the Carleton win. Unfortunately a “pick” on Brett's stone caused the rock to crash and Waterloo stole their third victory of the competition (having stolen games vs Laurier and Toronto).
 
Gold medal game vs. Trent

This was a far different Trent team than the one we bested 7-0 in the round robin. Their play was focused and their shots, for the most part, clean. With hammer Trent took a single in the first when they tried to blank the end. Forced to a single in the second end the game was tied before a blank in the third end.

Trent drew against 3 Waterloo stones in the 4^th end to lead going into the break by a slim margin or 2 – 1. However it was all Waterloo in the 5^th eventually playing a wide open hit for a huge 5 to lead the Excalibur's by a score of 6-2. Despite the lead Waterloo chose to play a more aggressive 6^th and Trent were able to score 2 in the 6^th end. Again in the 7^th Waterloo did not keep the game “clean” and Jake's final rock was a clear of the Trent counter for a single. Up 7 – 4 playing the final end the Warriors were able to run the Trent squad out of rocks to post their second OUA Gold and a second straight trip to the CIS Nationals in March.
 
Special appreciation is extended to Nathan Ransom (Sioux Lookout/), alternate for Waterloo, for his play in the games against Laurier, Windsor and Brock and his on-going support of the team.
 
Waterloo men will join Trent and Carleton (as the OUA has three berths to the Nationals) in Kamloops March 20 – 24 for the CIS / CCA University Curling Nationals. The winners of this event will become Team Canada and travel to Karuizawa Japan, January 2014.