McEwen Into Astec Safety Challenge Semis

Saskatoon's Mike McEwen defeated Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller 3-2 in Friday evening's quarterfinals. McEwen, with Colton Flasch at third and brothers Kevin and Daniel Marsh on the front end, opened scoring with two points in the second end, using their hitting ability to stymie the Swiss rink through the game. Schwaller scored singles in the third and fifth ends, though it was McEwen who held hammer with a one-point lead to finish out the game. In the qualifying game on Thursday, McEwen fell behind early against Goesgens as the Dutch side scored three points in the first end. Goesgens, with Laurens Hoekman at third, Jaap van Dorp at second and Tobias van den Hurk at lead were coming off a disappointing result at the Le Gruyere European Championships, opened the weekend with a 7-5 win over Calgary's Kevin Koe, falling to Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller to put themselves into the B side. Wins over Edmonton's James Ballance (7-3) and Italy's Joel Retornaz (6-4) set up the meeting against McEwen. McEwen came through the A-event bracket, reaching the A-qualifier game with a 10-1 win over Logan Ede of Saskatoon and a 7-4 win over Brent Pierce of New Westminster, BC. McEwen dropped a 6-1 decision to Scotland's Bruce Mouat to set up the meeting with Goesgens. McEwen came back firing in the second end, scoring three points to even the score again. Goesgens scored a single point in the third end to take back the lead, extending it to two with a steal in the fourth end. McEwen broke the dam in the fifth end, scoring four points to take a 7-5 lead, with teams trading deuces through the sixth, seventh and eighth ends to send the game to an extra end. McEwen added another deuce for good measure in bonus time, finishing off the 11-9 win. McEwen faces Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller in the quarterfinals at 8pm Mountain Time on Friday.