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Tolusso, Lilly off to nationals
By John Cameron
Monday, December 21, 2009

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A trip to Sorel Tracy, Que., was in the cards for the Christian Tolusso rink Sunday afternoon, but not for the Sarah Lang rink on Sunday night as the Northern Ontario Junior Curling Championships wrapped up at the Fort William Curling Club.
Tolusso and his Port Arthur Curling Club rink of Adam Lamers, Mark Adams and Peter Deboer took the Northern Ontario junior men‘s title by knocking off the defending champs, the Dylan Johnston rink 6-2.
Tolusso will be joined at the Canadian juniors in Quebec (Jan. 16-24) by the Kendra Lilly rink of Sudbury, who successfully defended their junior women‘s title with an 8-0 victory over Lang in six ends.
“We had our best game of the weekend, and we stuck to our game plan knowing that Dylan would give us a tough game,” said Tolusso noting that the move to Thunder Bay from Ottawa to curl with Lamers and Adams resulted in their goal to win the Northern Ontario title.
This marks the first trip to the junior nationals for Tolusso, who played in three previous Ontario junior playdowns, while Lamers and Adams are going back after winning Northern Ontario with Kory Carr two years ago.
The win by the left-handed skip and his Port Arthur Curling Club was not all that surprising. The victory marked the fourth time in four meetings that Tolusso beat Johnston this year including an 8-7 victory to open the competition Friday night.
It was a disappointing end for Johnston and his rink of Cody Johnston, Mike Badiuk and Mike Makela who were looking for another shot at the Canadian junior title that eluded them last year as they lost the championship final to Prince Edward Island.
The turning point in the game came in the sixth end as the Port Arthur crew generated their second deuce of the game on a steal to take control 5-1. It was risk and reward for Johnston as they were attempting a double kill of two Tolusso counters (one in the back four-foot) for what was a potential shot for three. However, the worst possible result saw Johnston‘s hammer rattle rocks in a tight port, promoting Tolusso in for the steal of two and a comfortable four-point lead.
Lilly‘s Sudbury rink, which includes Kim Curtin, Jennifer Gates and Kaitlynd Burns, made the most of their two chances to successfully defend their junior women‘s title. Lilly posted a perfect 5-0 record in round-robin play which meant they had to be beaten twice by Lang for the title.
Lang and her rink of Karlee Jones, Nicole Westlund and Victoria Anderson came out strong in the afternoon game to force the one-game showdown. The Fort William Curling Club rink won 8-4 victory with a key two-ender in the eighth end and then a steal of two more in the ninth end. However, Sunday night, The Lang foursome was not as sharp as they fell behind early giving up two in the first end and were not able to overcome the determination of the Lilly squad who posted steals over the next four ends to claim the title.
“We were came out and played so good this afternoon as were determined to force a second game,” said Lang noting that they were disappointed by their performance in the night game.
The loss ended a strong junior career for Lang, who played at the nationals two years ago with Ashley Miharija. Lang and second Nicole Westlund both graduate to women‘s play next year. Jones and Anderson will be back playing juniors.

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