Cumberland Panthers running back Marvyn Larozar scored four touchdowns in leading his team to 39-6 win overr the Kanata Knights in the NCAFA A-Cup mosquito championshup on Sunday. Fred Sherwin/Photo

The Cumberland Panthers went into the NCAFA championship finals this past weekend hoping to win a trio of titles. They easily won the first two at the tyke and mosquito levels, but came up frustratingly short in the bantam final, largely due to their own miscues.

The Panther tykes kicked the day off with a 46-20 win over the Cornwall Wildcats behind an MVP performance by quarterback and placekicker Shilo Mukendy who scored 40 of his team's points, including six touchdowns.

As strong as the Panthers' running game was, it was there defence that made the difference in limiting the Wildcats to 20 points despite the heroics of their own feature running back, Ben Jackman, who scored all three of his team's touchdowns on runs of 55, 37 and 56 yards. (It should be noted that the tykes play on an 80-yard field.)

After the game, tykes head coach Eric Anderson praised the Wildcats for giving the Panthers a run for their money

"We didn't get anything easy. We had to fight for our yards. It was the five- and six-yard plays by our fullback, our tailback and our slotback that made the difference on offence. And on defence we gave up a couple of big plays, but other than that we shut them down," Anderson explained.

Members of the Cumberland Panthers moaquito team pose with he championship trophy after beating the Kanata Knights in Sunday's A-Cup final. Fred Sherwin/Photo

Following the tyke trophy presentation it was the mosquito team's turn to take the field against the Kanata Knights.

Both teams got to the final the hard way, pulling off upsets in the semi-finals. The Knights downed the Orleans Bengals 34-30 and the Panthers beat the previously undefeated Cornwall Wildcats.

Cumberland's defence set the tone early on in the championship game nearly intercepting a pass, sacking the Knights quarterback and blocking a punt on three consecutive plays to set up a three-yard touchdown run by Marvyn Larozar.

Larozar would score again later on the first quarter on a 22-yard effort to give his team a 12-0 lead.

The Panthers continued to dominate the play in the second stanza, putting together a 12-play drive that burned nearly 10 minutes off the clock before stalling on the Knights 18-yard line.

Kanata was able to get off three plays including their first first down of the game with 1:27 remaining in the opening half.

The Panthers would increase their lead in the second half thanks to Laraozar's third touchdown of the game. The speedy running back took the ball five yards out from the end zone and simply ran through the hole created by big offensive lineman Daniel Sungani who got a great deal of MVP consideration for the job he did in clearing the way for both Laraozar and his fellow running mates Hunter Kelly and Owen Shields.

Kelly scored on a 42-yard run in the third quarter to put his team up 25-0, and Shields capped the game with a five-yard run midway through the fourth stanza to extend the Panthers' lead to 39-6. In between, Larozar scored his fourth major of the game.