ONT (Peel): CFC#30 Panthers come out of gruelling week with mixed results

CFC TOP 50 St. Marguerite d’Youville Panthers found themselves playing two games this week because no Lakeshore Officials were assigned last Friday.

d’Youville opened up the week playing the Aquinas Cardinals on Monday. The Panthers hammered the Cardinals early with some big runs by CFC TOP 100 Damian Halstead and running backs  Kadeem Moses, and Clemente Nti.  In some pretty wet and muddy conditions, CFC Top 100 Damian Halstead opened up the scoring with a 53 yard run, but the extra point was missed.  Next, Kadeem Moses scampered into the end zone on a 32 yard run. The Panthers converted two points with a 5 yard run by Halstead. The Panthers looked pretty solid defensively all first half, and were able to stop the Cardinals’ running attack.  Clemente Nti added a third d’Youville TD and a two point convert to bring the Panthers to 22-0 at the half.

During the fourth quarter the Cardinals eventually found the end zone on a 7 yard pass, which made the score 22-7. d’Youville quickly answered back when QB Ben Bortolussi connected with Damian Halstead on a 41 yard pass.

The Panthers won the game with a final score of 28-10.

With only 3 days rest the Panthers played the Campion Bears on Friday. This was a battle of two powerhouses in Peel’s north division.

The Panthers pounded the ball and capped off a huge drive with a 6 yard TD by FB Marquis Richards. Both teams played an extremely physical game where field position was key. The Panthers stood their ground on defense but gave up a 24 yard field goal in the second quarter making the score 7-3.

RB Damian Halstead was a beast pounding the ball, and carried Campion defenders on his back down the field every time he touched the ball. He was relentless and very physical all game long.  The Panthers made it down to the 25 yard line where kicker Shawn Dogra booted a 32 yard field goal straight through the uprights.

Later in the game Campion RB Chris Reid broke through d’Youville’s defense for a 68 yard TD run.  The game was tied at 10-10, and soon went into OT.

The Panthers chose to send out their offense first in the shoot out. Starting on the 35, d’Youville seemed to pound the ball easily down the field with a 7 yard run by Chris Vitale, then an 18 yard run by Damian Halstead, and an 8 yard run by Marquis Richards. It seemed like the Panthers would easily score on the 2 yard line, but the ball was fumbled on the exchange with the FB, and Campion recovered.

Then, it was The Bears’ turn on offense. The first play was stopped dead in the backfield by Panther defenders. Then, Campion attempted a long pass, but d’Youville DB Joshua Sabino picked off his second pass of the day to end the game in a 10-10 tie.

The Panthers will now travel to Bolton on Wednesday to play the St. Mike’s Thunder at 2:00pm. This will be d’Youville’s third game in 10 days due to Lakeshore Officials missing their scheduled assignment.  After missing last game, CFC Top 100 Malik Richards and Donovan Glave are expected to be back in the line up for the Panthers.