Trites 14-and-under provincial curling team earns top spot

There was a provincial 14--and-under tournament that took place in Saint John, N.B., on Feb.23-25.

The team was made up of three boys from Sackville and one from Fredericton.

The members from Sackville were Alex Trites, William Lautenschlager and David Hunter. The one member from Fredericton was Josh Barry, who usually skips his own team but decided to join forces with the Trites team.

The foursome made a great team that took the Riverside Curling Club by surprise in the semi finals.

There were 24 teams that entered this Kenny Coates Memorial Tournament and the Sackville team came out the only undefeated team. The Sackville team went into the semi finals knowing that they were going to have a tough game against the Riverside Curling Club team.

They were down by one going into the final end without the hammer.

The Sackville team played a perfect final end and allowed them to steal one point to tie the game and go into extra ends.

During the extra end, the Sackville team had control with a rock in the centre and one in the outside left 12 -foot. The centre rock was open with a slight amount of coverage. Josh Barry threw his last rock to remove the opponents rock but was not covered.

The skip of the other team hit the shot rock but rolled out which meant that the second stone now was the first stone. There were two rocks in the 12- foot, one from each team, but the Trites team rock was number one, which took them to the finals.

The final game should have been a little easier for the Sackville team but proved to be difficult. The Trites team had the lead after six ends. They were up by two but the seventh end did not go well for the team.

The opponents were sitting two in the seventh with last rock but were looking at removing a rock of Sackvilles in the back 12-foot, which would give them four points.

It was not an easy shot but the ice fell on that side which made the shot easier. They made the shot and now Sackville was down by two in the final end with the hammer. They planned to get their two in this end and go into an extra end. The teams front end did their job with some coverage out front.

Alex Trites was throwing mates rocks and he knew he had to be on the button. His first shot was in the back four- foot but slightly open, but then they came down and pushed him out. Alex then made a beautiful come-around and sat on the button.

The opponents tried to come to that rock and went through the house. Josh Barry then came the other way and sat on top of Alexs rock.

The opponents from Grand Falls tried to draw into the rocks but crashed into the rocks out front. They were now sitting two with one last rock to go.

Josh Barry made a beautiful draw to the four- foot to win the game.