OVFL Junior Varsity game preview: Myers Riders vs. Cumberland Panthers

The JV Myers Riders (0-1) and JV Cumberland Panthers (1-0) will face off this Saturday at Millennium Park, 2:30pm, in a junior varsity battle for Ottawa.

The Riders faltered in their season opener losing 19-15 to a tough Kingston Grenadiers squad, and will look to get on a winning track this weekend against the cross-town rival Panthers.

While there was a lot of good to take away from the week 1 loss – league leading passing yards and stingy defense – team head coach Matt Kassner knows that his group will need to limit mistakes if they hope to subdue the Panthers.

“In week 1 our offense moved the ball really well on a great Kingston defense, but we just could not finish off our drives,” explains Kassner. “We had the most passing yards in the league but we also had 3 picks, which cannot happen. Our defense played really well only allowing 17 points (2 points were from a safety) but we need to stop the ‘big play.’ Our defense needs to stay disciplined and force offenses to have sustained drives rather than having 1 big play go for a touchdown.”

Limiting turnovers and taking away the big play from an offense that looked plenty explosive last week will certainly be a key to victory for the Riders.

Coach Kassner also notes that his club will be amping up their red zone efficiency this week and will be looking to implement “a few new plays that will work well against Cumberland’s defensive scheme.”

The Cumberland Panthers began 2012 in winning fashion, posting nearly 60 points in a 57-28 win over the Markham Raiders. The team will look to keep the ball rolling as it hosts the Riders Saturday afternoon.

Despite the blowout win, head coach Ntare Bainomugisha would like to see his team “protect the ball better on offense and get more physical on defense.”

While the coach knows there is always room for improvement, he wants nothing more than to see the effort displayed in Week 1 replicated this Saturday.

“The team did not quit,” Bainomugisha notes. “They fought hard to the end. We had a brutal first half on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, and it would have been really easy to give up, but they hung in there, and executed the in game adjustments, and in the end we prevailed. Special teams was also another reason that allowed us to stay in the game in the first half.”

If the Panthers are indeed able to replicate last week’s effort the team may find itself a quarter of the way to a perfect season. The Riders on the other hand, must avoid a second straight loss or else they will be battling uphill for the remainder of the year.

Adding to the drama of an already crucial contest is that the two squads will be facing off for hometown bragging rights.

“I would be lying if I said this was not a huge game for us against Cumberland,” says coach Kassner. “We cannot afford to go 0-2 to start the season, and also the fact that Cumberland is our cross-town rival adds a lot of importance to this game. The winner of this game essentially has bragging rights in Ottawa for the next year, unless we meet again in the playoffs. Cumberland’s JV head coach is an ex-Myers coach, so I know he will have his team ready to play as I’m sure he would love to beat his old team.”

For his part, Panthers head coach Bainomugisha is downplaying both the Ottawa rivalry and his past association with the Riders.

“Honestly this is game 2 of an 8 game season. Our season will not be made or broken by the outcome of this game. We all as players and coaches have friends and rivals on the Myers team, and it’ll be nice to have bragging rights going forward, but our main concern is making sure that we play our game and execute…….no different than any other team or game that we’ll be playing this season.”

The game will take place at Millennium Park this Saturday at 2:30pm.