The Cumberland Panthers U16 girls tackle football team are provincial champions after beating the Peel Panthers 58-28 at Richardson Stadium in Kingston on July 12.

The two teams went into the championship game with equal 6-1 records. Their only regular season losses came against each other. Cumberland beat Peel 64-50 in the opening game of the season for both teams.

Peel then returned the favour in Week 3, with 38-26 win over their namesakes. As the season went on, it became apparent that the two teams would like end up facing each other for the title.

Cumberland came into the final with both the highest scoring offence, having piled up 444 points in seven games, and the stingiest defence, allowing just 148 points.

Peel was not far behind in both categories. They managed to scored 360 points in seven games and allowed just 176 points.

When the two Titans clashed it was the Cumberland Panthers who scored first on a QB scramble by quarterback Maëlle Parthenais in the first quarter.

Parthenais would use her legs again to score a second touchdown in the second quarter. Solange Springate would kick her second convert to make the score 14-0.

They would go up 21-0 later in the second quarter on a touchdown by running back Savanah McNeil, before a Peel touchdown would end the first half with the Panthers carrying a 21-6 lead into the break.

Peel managed to shrink Cumberland’s lead to just seven points in the early stages of the with a touchdown and a two-point conversion early in the third quarter.

McNeil’s second touchdown of the game on the next series would re-establish the Panthers 14-point advantage, but it would short-lived as Peel scored the next two majors and added another two-point conversion to tie the contest at 28-28. But it would be as close as they would get as Cumberland scored the next 36 points on two more touchdown runs by McNeil, a touchdown run by tight end Violet Hayes, a pass from Parthenais to Springate and a safety by linebacker Annabelle Pearson.

They would also add a two-point convert pass from Parthenais to her sister Alyssa.

For head coach Eric Parthenais, the win was the culmination of weeks of hard work in practice during which they were put through the paces as if they were in an actual game.

“We definitely didn’t treat them with kid gloves,” says Parthenais about a team where over 50 per cent of the roster were playing tackle football for the first time.

“They are a hard working, resilient group with a lot of mental toughness. We put them through a lot in practice and they never backed down from a challenge.

The U16 title is the second girls champi-onship the Cumberland Panthers have won in as many years. The U19 team won the provincial championship last year after beating the London Wolfpaac 9-8 in a very tight final.

Girls tackle football has really taken off in the last three years, especially at the older age level where there are now 13 teams in two divisions. This year’s U19 Panthers team went 6-0 in the East Division before losing to the U19 Peel Panthers in the semi-finals.

Parthenais is hoping the growth of the U19 league will trickle down to the U16 level where there are currently only four teams. The hope is that the league will add at least two more teams next year.
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In other football news, the Panthers U18 and U16 boys teams both lost in the Ontario Summer Football League semi-finals to the London Jr. Mustangs, after highly success-ful regular seasons. The U18 team had a 5-2 record and the U16 squad lead the East Division with a perfect 7-0 record before falling to London.

The Panthers’ U14 team on the other hand won their semi-final to keep their unbeaten season alive and earn a berth in the league championship game where they will face – you guessed it, the Jr. Mustangs..