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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.
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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.