 Northern Ontario's John Epping (Photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) defeated Northern Ontario's Sandy MacEwen 8-5 at the Henderson Metal Fall Classic presented by Kioti Tractors of Ontario in Sault Ste. Marie. By Connor Simms, #6 World-Ranked John with Jake Horgan at third, Tanner Horgan and Ian McMillan on the front end look to keep gaining momentum, heading into the Olympic Trials next month. After just missing out on the final in Nisku, Alberta, at the Co-op Tour Challenge last weekend, Epping headed back to their home province for the Henderson Metal Fall Classic presented by Kioti Tractors of Ontario in Sault Ste. Marie. Last season at this event, they lost the final to the eventual champions, Matt Dunstone. In their opening game, they took on Home province rival Sandy MacEwan. Epping won the opening game, drawing to the button for the hammer. MacEwan opened the scoring, stealing 1 in the first end, and added another steal of 2 in the second end to take an early 3-0 lead. Epping scored 2 in the third end, MacEwan responded in the fourth end, scoring 2 to extend the lead to 5-2. Epping scored 2 in the fifth end, then added a steal in the sixth end, and added another steal of 3 in the seventh end for the 8-5 win. In another draw 2 action, Matt Dunstone (Winnipeg, MB) defeated Nathan Young (St. John's, NL) 11-3, Chase Sinnett (Chaska, MN) defeated Dustin Kalthoff (Saskatoon, SK) 6-1, Evan Van Amsterdam (Edmonton, AB) defeated Shinya Abe (Sapporo, JPN), Marco Hoesil (Glarus, SUI) defeated Jordan Chandler (Little Current, NO) and Alex Champ (Toronto, ON) defeated JC Beecroft (Sault Ste. Marie, NO). This week's event features an 18-team, triple-knockout format. Two teams will qualify from the A-side, and three from the B/C-side. The playoffs will then consist of a regular 8-team, single-elimination round. Epping's next game will be against Van Amsterdam at 7:30 pm Eastern Time (ET). Catch all of the action live on the CurlingZone YouTube Page. Also, find the linescores on the CurlingZone Website. |
A five at the opening end of their first-ever match together in a major international competition sent Katie McMillan and Angus Bryce on their way to a dominant victory over the USA at the ACE & Company World Mixed Doubles Championships in Geneva.
