Cumberland (East Ottawa) Panthers visited the Oshawa Hawkeyes on Saturday July 4 in Ontario Varsity Football League action. The peewee and junior varsity squads squared off at Oshawa’s Civic stadium (which is being resurfaced with artificial turf next month).

Junior Varsity

The JV game saw a battle of wits and defense in the opening half. Big plays in the first quarter included a big catch by the Panthers, #85 Jonathan Mulumba. Not long after the Hawkeyes defensive back, #19 Tyler Vincent had what turned out to be the hit of the game. Dimitri Pronko opened the scoring in the first quarter on a rouge from a missed field goal attempt of 28 yards.

The second quarter was hilighted by an interception from cumberland’s Joshua McLean at the 6:03 mark. The ensuing panther drive saw them get the ball down to the 8 yard line and a first and goal opportunity. With 0:52 remaining in the half the hawkeyes defense came up big with a goal line stand. Opening half ended 1 to 0.

The second half saw the game open up. An early fourth quarter scoring drive by the panthers was a result of #24, Eric Backstrom with 2 big catches and #33, Isaiah Harris with a key 16 yard draw play down to the hawkeye one yard line. The next play QB #15, Sebastien Poitras took the ball in for the TD on the QB sneak. Pronko converted. 8 to 0 panthers.

The most exciting play of the game happened minutes later when Pronko missed a long field goal attempt and hawkeye returner, #22 Aaron Champayne returned the ball 125 yards for a touchdown. But just wait, an unnecessary roughness penalty nullified the return and saw the hawkeyes scrimmage from the panther 25 yard line instead of getting the 6 points. That was the last play of the quarter.

On the same drive, the hawkeyes had a fourth and 2 attempt from the panther 7 yard line. The pass attempt was incomplete and the ball was turned over on downs. And this was the closest the hawkeyes would get to scoring.

At 6:26 of the last quarter, panthers #27, Devin Brazeau returned a punt 75 yards to the hawkeyes five yard line. His coaches rewarded his efforts by handing him the ball on the next play, this time Brazeau scored. Pronko converted the TD making the score 15 to 0.

The final minutes saw some valiant effort from a few hawkeyes. On the day dropped balls was a big problem for the squad. Cumberland’s Harris scampered 25 yards for a touchdown to complete the scoring late in the game. 21 to 0 the final

Players to Watch
Oshawa
75, DL Mike Ostapchuk
55, LB Mike Macgregor
24, DB Kannar Bell
31, DB/RB Evan Rutherford
5, QB Drew Pottle

Cumberland
33, RB Isaiah Harris
61, DL Cameron Veck
15, QB Sebastien Poitras
65, OL/K Dimitri Pronko
5, DB Michel Cormier
27, KR Devin Brazeau
16, DB Joshua Mclean

Peewee

Cumberland panthers peewee team had a slow, methodical start but eventually put together some drives and big plays. The opening the score of the game was by the hawkeyes DB #20, Darnell Fortin when he returned an interception 80 yards for the touchdown. Convert attempt by #26, Braeden Vavassori was good. Hawkeyes 7 to 0.

The panthers settled down and began to accumulate big yards running the ball with #25, Dimitri Vaillancourt and #21, Rashari Somerville-Henry. Vaillancourt finished with 3 touchdowns on the day, Somerville-Henry with one and #43, Daniel Ebron tallied a TD as well. Panthers #76, Quinton Soares had 4 successful one point converts. Final score was 34 to 7 for the visitors.

Players to Watch
Hawekeyes
#69, OL/DL Tyler Simpson
#54, OL Cody Moss
#55, LB Dylan Misseri
#20, DB Darnell Fortin

Panthers
#85, DL/OL Vincent Gionet
#25, RB Dimitri Vaillancourt
#21, RB Rashari Somerville-Henry
#58, OL Elie Krayem