Top seeds Kevin Koe of Calgary and Brendan Bottcher from Edmonton reached the semifinals of the A-side Wednesday at the Alberta Boston Pizza Cup in Wainwright, Alta.
Koe earned a 9-4 eight-end victory over Jamie King of St. Albert. The three-time Alberta champion scored two in the second, held King to one in the third and picked up three in the fourth to lead 5-1. The rinks matched deuces through five and six, King settled for one in the seventh and Koe added another pair in the eighth.
Meanwhile, Bottcher needed an extra end to edge Daylan Vavrek 6-5. The 2012 world junior champion jumped out 3-0 with a single in the second and stealing a pair in the third. Vavrek battled back to take two in the fifth, Bottcher got one in six and the Sexsmith-based rink tied it 4-4 with another deuce in seven.
Bottcher regained the lead with a point in the eighth but Vavrek blanked the ninth and knotted it back up in the 10th to force the extra frame. Bottcher got the winner in the 11th to bounce Vavrek to the B-side.
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Team Bottcher now meets Brock Virtue, who took down Matthew Blandford 8-2 in just five ends of an all-Calgary rink match. Virtue scored a deuce in the first, stole one in the second and took a five-ender in the fourth while limiting Blandford to single points in three and five.
Koe meets James Pahl, who scored a four-ender in the final end to lift his Edmonton rink to a 10-8 win over Aaron Sluchinski of Airdrie.
The winner of the Boston Pizza Cup will represent Alberta at the Tim Hortons Brier, starting Feb. 28 in Calgary. Watch coverage of the Boston Pizza Cup starting Sunday at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT on Sportsnet West.
