Maple United keeps Rock League playoff hopes alive with sweep of Shield Curling Club

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Rachel Homan and Maple United have hope yet.

One day after being swept by Brad Jacobs and Shield Curling Club, Maple returned the favour in mixed fours on Saturday at Rock League at Toronto’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.

“We were pretty down last night,” said Maple’s Mike McEwen, who skipped his foursome to a 5-4 victory. “But I felt the energy with my team, a sheet over the same thing, we were firing and just the mood was a complete flip today. What a turnaround. That was fun. That’s gonna be one of the highlights of my year playing that game.”

The two points means Maple is still alive for a berth into Sunday’s playoffs, while Shield’s fate will also lie in the final two mixed-fours draws.

Both games were extremely tight — and each entered the seventh and final end in identical scenarios, with Shield leading 4-3 but Maple holding hammer.

Maple takes down Shield in Rock League action

On Sheet A, the Maple group of McEwen, Xenia Schwaller, Karlee Burgess and Tanner Horgan pulled off a relatively stress-free deuce for the win.

They then huddled around Sheet B, where Ross Whyte needed to cover the pinhole with a draw to win it for Maple in regulation — however, he came up painstakingly close, scoring just one and forcing a tiebreaker.

Shooting first, Jacobs threw his draw to the button a touch heavy. Then, some hard sweeping from Homan, Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman guided their yellow rock just far enough to seal the sweep.

“We didn’t get the results we were hoping for on a bunch of shots,” Jacobs said. “And usually that’s either release stuff or communication stuff, weight stuff. It’s a combination of all of