Junior Varsity Football
JV Panthers keep playoff hopes alive
By Mike Beasley
Orléans Online

Cumberland Panthers receiver and kick returner Kevin Victome fends off a would-be tackler during their 40-7 win over the Mississauga Warriors on June 17. Fred Sherwin/Photo

Jeff Koradi is finally starting to sleep well at night. Winning football games has had that effect on the head coach of the Cumberland Panthers junior varsity squad.

Victors in two of their last three Ontario Provincial Football League games, Koradi is happy with the progress his team has shown over the past three games.

A convincing 40-7 home field win on Saturday over the visiting Mississauga Warriors put Koradi in a celebratory mood during a post-game interview.

“I’m really happy with the way the kids played at both ends of the field, we made a lot of great plays with the ball and with-out it,” Koradi said, while exchanging high fives and handshakes with his players and several Panther parents.

“We finally played in stride and came out of the game with a much needed win. The only thing that I’m disappointed with is that we left some points on the field because of bad penalties or failed execution.”

With their recent success, the Panthers (2-3) are back in the playoff hunt with three games left to play in the regular season.

This coming Saturday the Panthers will travel to Kingston to take on the winless Grenadiers (0-5). Koradi his team won’t be looking ahead to their highly anticipated match up against the Ottawa Sooners (3-2) Canada Day weekend at Carleton University.

The Panthers will then close out the regular season at Millennium Park on Sunday, Jan. 20 against the Guelph Jr. Gryphons (0-5).

If their win against Mississauga on Saturday is any indication, the Panthers should easily make the playoffs with points to spare.

The Panthers led the game from start to finish and was clearly the dominant team. The Warriors scored their only touchdown of the game late in the second quarter after Cumberland had already jumped out to a 10-0.

The Panthers then responded with a touchdown with 15.6 seconds left in the first half to take a 17-7 lead into the break. They would score 23 more points in the final two quarters to run away with the game by a 40-7 margin.

Panthers’ quarterback Ryan Licandro had his best game of the season, complet-ing 25 of 42 passes for a total of 367 yards and four touchdowns.

His favourite target, once again was wide receiver Kevin Victome who hauled in six passes for 102 yards and a pair of touchdown receptions.

Wide receiver Jonathan Aoude had a productive afternoon as well with seven catches and a major, and Xavier Gervais had a strong outing with a pair of TDs and a field goal.

Conor MacDonald was a force on both sides of the ball scoring on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Licandro and chipping in a key interception.

(Posted 8:30 p.m., June 19)

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