Cumberland Panthers kick off the 2014 season this Saturday!

No one cares what I think about the possibility of a stoppage in play in the CFL, so I won't even address it.  Instead, I will direct my attention to those who want to play.

This Saturday, the three Cumberland Panther OVFL clubs face off against the Metro Toronto Wildcats.  The bantam, junior varsity and varsity games start at noon, 2:30PM and 5PM respectively.  Admission is $5 and all games will be played on field #2 at Millenium Park.

I was actually quite surprised to learn (or be reminded) that the Panthers' senior club was 0-8 last year.  They are normally far more competitive, but it may be that they happened to field  a fairly young team.  They are returning leading passer Thompson Richards (1348 yards, 10 passing touchdowns), leading tackler Will Karam (a linebacker with 43 in total, 32 of which were solo) and top receiver Brandon Smith (30 for 385 and eight scores).

Smith is joined by 2013 junior varsity all-star receiver Kurleigh Gittens who recorded 47 catches for 760 and five touchdowns at that level. He also averaged more than 13 yards on punt returns, including a score.

All Panther home games, as well as those of defending champs Myers Riders, are now listed at the middle right of the page.  The Panthers play at Millenium throughout the season, and the Riders usually play at Minto (Nepean Sportsplex) but I noticed that their June 28th match up against the Toronto Thunder is being held at Carleton.  The two teams have their annual head-to-head match-up on July 12th at Minto.

Looking forward to seeing things get underway!

Riders and Panthers in the OVFL Prospects Game

The timing on this announcement is rather fortuitous. The last post was about university players being selected to a game to showcase themselves for the pros, this one is about junior varsity players being selected to showcase themselves to university clubs.  And it's also Ottawa-heavy.

The selection process is relatively simple; if you made last year's all-star team, and are registered for 2014, then you're in. A substitute is selected from the player's team if he is not registered for 2014.

No  Name              Team          Pos.  High School
3   Luke Rawling  Myers Riders   WR   Perth and District
7   Okwes Nwaelleh Myers Riders   DB   St Pauls
24  Nicholas Brunet Cumberland     RB   Louis Riel
41  Abed Hamidi       Myers Riders   LB   Earl of March
45  Nicarlo Funai Cumberland     DL   St. Mark
56  Jake Nesbitt      Cumberland     OL   Ashbury College
57  Benjamin Spencer Myers Riders   OL   Ashbury College
63  Craig Dawe        Myers Riders   OL   Sacred Heart
80  Darius Beckford Cumberland     WR   St. Patrick
84  Philippe Iloki Myers Riders   WR   St Joseph

Way to drop two guys there, Ashbury!  While there are no stats to share for offensive linemen, and size alone does not a great lineman make, it may be worthwhile to point out that Nesbitt is listed as being 6'1, 290 pounds.

Let's also give a little recognition to the members of the Riders/Panthers coaching staffs that will assist the Wettges Conference team for this game.

COACHING STAFF
Ntare Bainomugisha   Cumberland Panthers    OC
Matt Kassner         Myers Riders           LB
Chris Bromfield      Cumberland Panthers    WR
John Buck            Myers Riders           ST
Matt Ferguson        Myers Riders           DB
Pat Nesbitt          Cumberland Panthers    OL

And finally, let's have a look at some stats (as provided by the OVFL website):

Myers Riders 

Rawlings (6'02", 205): 15 receptions, 200 yards, two td's.
Iloki (6'00", 175): 40 receptions, 817 yards, 13 td's.
Nwaelleh (5'11", 170): 19 tackles, 29 assists, 6 interceptions.
Hamidi (5'09", 208): 34 tackles, 7.5 sacks. 

Cumberland Panthers 

Brunet (5'10", 190): 16 carries for 49 yards, six receptions for 20 yards and a score.
Funai (6'04", 225): 31 tackles, six sacks.
Beckford (5'08", 153): Eight receptions for 116 yards and a score.

It'll be interesting to see who shines.  Keep these names in the back of your mind; there's a very good chance that several of the them will be playing CIS ball soon, hopefully close to home.

The game will be played at McMaster next Saturday. Kickoff is at 2PM.

Myers Riders are 2013 OVFL Varsity Champs!

Even though it happened a few weeks ago now, I want to acknowledge the most recent championship-winning squad in town, and record their accomplishment.  The article below is from the Niagara Falls Review.

ST. CATHARINES - There were more than 1,400 fans at Kiwanis Field Saturday night and the Niagara Spears looked like they had everything in place to win the Ontario Varsity Football League championship.

The Ottawa Myers Riders, howeer, had other plans for who would be wearing the 2013 varsity championship ring.

...

The Riders came into the game undefeated at 10-0 and were well worth the price of admission.

Overall, Riders quarterback Nick Gorgichuk completed 24 passes for 299 yards and three touchdowns, putting an exclamation point on his record-breaking season in which he threw for more than 4,000 yards in just 11 games.

“This team set 17 OVFL records this year, and he (Gorgichuk) is the best quarterback I have ever seen in this league,” Riders coach Max Palladino said as his team celebrated their first varsity championship.

“We had a bad taste in our mouths after losing to London last year in the finals, and this win feels incredible because we talked about this right from the beginning of the year.”

The Spears actually went ahead 3-0 on a Michael Domagala field goal to start the game, but the Riders came back with a vengeance, scored three straight touchdowns in the next 12 minutes and surged ahead 21-3.

The Spears put together a 70-yard drive in the middle of the second quarter and had the crowd and momentum on their side as they looked poised to score. But Spears quarterback Blair Robertson’s pass was intercepted by Riders linebacker Brad Herbst, who ran the ball back 85 yards to give his team a 25-point lead.

Early in the second half, the Spears didn’t give up and their defence came up big with a two-point safety, which also returned the ball to their offence. The ensuing drive, however, ended in another interception thrown by Robertson. The Riders then put the game away when they took a 23-point lead with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Gorgichuk to wide receiver Kory Morgan.

“Their quarterback actually gets rid of the ball really quickly,” Spears defensive coordinator Sean Jones said. “He throws it well and their receivers did a really good job of catching it. “We missed a couple of assignments, but at the end of the day their offence played really well against us.

Spears 20 Riders 42

St. Catharines Standard Star of the Game: Ottawa quarterback Nick Gorgichuk with 299 passing yards and three touchdown completions.

For the Myers Riders: Offence: Jonathon Cimankinda, 59 yards rushing and two touchdowns; Kory Morgan, 135 yards receiving and two touchdowns; Jaeger Prot, 24 yards receiving and touchdown; Connor Ayre, six extra-point conversions; Defence: Jordan Grogichuk, interception; Brad Herbst, interception.

Here's a team roster, as posted on the OVFL website.  The players highlighted in red were named to the league's all-star team. Considering that we are referring to an undefeated championship team, that there are only three guys so awarded is a bit surprising. Guess it's a team effort. ;-)

 1  QB Gorgichuk, Nick    
 2  LB Butler, Justin    
 3  QB Jones, Costa     
 4  DB Laing-Richardson, Cam   
 5  RB Cimankinda, Jonathan   
 6  LB Cimankinda, Alain   
 7  QB Duffy, Matt    
 9  WR Charles, Rouben     
10  WR Krzaniak, Nick    
11  WR Malenfant, Cassidy     
14  DB Jean-Baptiste, Philip  
16  QB Sheahan, Kyle     
19  WR Bradley, Mathieu     
20  DB Gorgichuk, Jordon     
21  DB Smyth, Graham    
22  DB Elliott, Ty    
23  RB Tanti, Keenan    
24  DB Pierce, Daley    
25  WR Taha, Hussein    
26  RB Guest, Andrew    
29  LB Ramos, Vicente   
30  DB Doucette, Jordan 
31  RB Ferron, Jahdel   
32  DB Matthews, Taylor 
33  RB Keenan, Charlie  
34  WR Barrie, Kiell    
35  WR Morgan, Kory     
36  RB Legault, Jacob   
39  RB Moore, Julien    
42  DL Ferris, Scott 
44  DB Henselwood, Mitchell    
45  LB Herbst, Brad     
47  LB Bakshi, Akash     
48  DB Clayton, Jackson     
50  LB Fletcher, Kyrique 
51  LB Bonhomme, Ben     
53  OL Johnson, Will     
54  OL Butt, Kris     
55  OL Scott, Richard   
56  DL Bonifacio, Mark  
57  OL Bolumbe, Gedeon  
58  DL Allarie, John    
59  OL Pisani, Josef    
60  OL Young, Tyler     
61  SB Lachance, Jason  
63  OL Brakus, Andrew   
64  OL Lukusa, Paul    
65  OL Rowlands, Thomas 
67  OL Redmond, Conor 
68  DL Caissie, Paul 
70  PK Ayre, Connor  
73  LB Buckley, Jason
75  WR Cenatus, Eddy
76  DL Adams, Brett
77  SB Prot, Jaegar    
83  SB Trunzo, Vincenzo
84  SB Papalia, Joseph
85  DB Pankow, Patrick
88  DB Urbani, Nicolas
91  DL Dervisevic, Jasmin
92  DL Bolton, Parker
93  DL Parker, Cabe
99  DL Derdzinski, James