The Cumberland Panthers Football Club kicked off its fall season on Aug. 17 by winning all three of its games at the U10 tyke, U12 mosquito, and U16 bantam levels against their east end rivals from Orléans.

The most competitive game of the day was the U10 tyke match-up that kicked off the proceedings.

The Panthers drew first blood in the game thanks to a 40-yard run by their star quarterback Channing Mailhot, who then added the two-point convert when his kick split the goal posts.

The Bengals answered back on the very next series when Zachariya Osman scored on a 16-yard run into the end zone. Unfor-tunately, the two-point convert attempt was blocked and the Bengals trailed at that point 8-6.

A three-yard touchdown run and a two-point convert by Mailhot in the second quarter would extend the Panthers’ lead to 16-6 lead, which is where it remained until the halftime break.

The Bengals very nearly scored a touchdown of their own in the second quarter, but Etienne Lacroix was able to make a touchdown saving tackle to thwart the Bengals and keep the score at 16-6.

Undaunted, the Bengals managed to score a touchdown on the opening series of the second half, but a another blocked two-point conversion attempt left them trailing 16-12 on the scoresheet.

The score remained that way until the final seconds of the third quarter when Mailhot scored his third touchdown of the game on a five-yard run that followed a bizarre series of events in which the Bengals intercepted a pass only to fumble the ball back to the Panthers on the same play.

The Bengals kept the score close with a fumble recovery and 15-yard return to the end zone in the fourth quarter by Ben Dunham, but it was too little too late as the Panthers slammed the door shut on their rivals with a 35-yard touchdown run by Mailhot to end what was a highly entertaining game.

Unfortunately, the other three matches weren’t nearly as close. The U12 mosquito Panthers ran out to a 47-0 halftime lead on touchdowns by Ruslan Delorme and Carter Cain, Nico Scarfone, and Jacob Kavanaugh who each scored twice in the first half.

The Panthers would add one more con-verted major in the second half to make the final score 54-0.

In the only other game at Millennium Park on Aug. 17 , the U16 Panthers completely demolished the Orléans Raftsmen 92-0 in one of the most lopsided games in recent memory.

The U14 peewee Panthers were to kick off their season on Aug. 25 against the Bell-Air Lions. Unfortunately, the score was not available as of the printing of this week’s paper.