Photo courtesy of the Essex Ravens
One for the Record Book Saturday night in Nepean, the Essex Ravens Varsity team completed a fairytale season, capturing the Ontario Varsity Football League championship in a remarkable triple overtime 39-32 victory over the Cumberland Panthers. The Ravens finished the regular season with a 5-3 record, then won four consecutive road playoff games to claim their second Varsity Bowl trophy.
By Kevin Wickham
Nine hours after an epic battle, the Ravens' team bus pulled into the club's training facility at 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning. The post-season mission had been accomplished.
In a wild, six-possession "˜Texas shootout' triple overtime a three-hour championship thriller that saw six lead changes and a Red Raider decide the affair the Essex Ravens captured their second Ontario Varsity League Football title on Saturday night in Nepean, crushing the hearts of the Cumberland Panthers 39-32.
Ravens quarterback Austin Kennedy, with two running majors, and receiver Dylan Whitfield, the recipient of three Kennedy passing touchdowns, led the Ravens to victory.
"The first half and the third quarter they really shut us down on offense. They game-planned well," said Kennedy about the Panthers. "But I think we just wore them down, and it paid off in the end."
It was the Ravens' fourth league final appearance since 2002. Essex won the title in 2002.
"It was quite the finish. It's nice to have that [OVFL trophy] back in Essex," said Ravens head coach Glen Mills, speaking to the Free Press via telephone, just moments after the huge victory.
On the game's deciding play, the Panthers possessed the pigskin in the third overtime, having to score a major to force another OT. Quarterback Alex Skinner faced a fourth down and seven yards to go from the Ravens' 10-yard line.
"We knew they were going to throw the ball. They had tried to run the three previous times and we were stuffing the run," Mills explained.
"We changed our defense and went to a 4-1 (four linemen, one linebacker and seven defensive backs) and dropped everyone off into coverage."
As expected, Skinner passed, to his left, a play involving a J.P. and a P.J.
Cumberland wide receiver J.P. Hamelin caught the pass and attempted to reach the first down markers, but Essex defensive back P.J. Baylis brought him down just inches short of the three-yard line and a first down.
"I didn't know if we stopped them or not. I knew it was close," the coach yelled above the din of the jubilant Ravens bus.
"It was probably about six to eight inches short. Our kids were running all over the field."
After a referee's measurement, the verdict was final. The Essex Ravens were the 2010 OVFL Champions!
Prior to Baylis' heroics, the Ravens and Panthers waged an overtime classic. By league rules, in overtime, each team gets one possession per period, and if either team leads at the end of any period, they win. Starting from their opponents' 30-yard line, Essex and Cumberland matched majors in the first two periods. The Ravens' Whitfield scored on a five-yard hook-up from Kennedy on possession one, but the Panthers' star back, Ashton Dickson, evened things up on a two-yard scamper.
In period two of OT, Cumberland went up by seven on a one-yard run, which Essex countered when Kennedy found Whitfield again on a 30-yard touchdown pass. The winning touchdown, in OT period three, came via the legs of Kennedy, on a four-yard run, setting up Baylis' run-in with his reverse initials.
The Ravens had traveled to the nation's capital on Friday morning, arriving at 8:30 p.m. after a bus trip that took over nine hours. Their playoff quest was almost complete win a fourth straight playoff road game and they would lay claim to the league's title.
"I said this from the get-go a lot of teams would have folded their tent," said Mills. "We were in some very difficult situations in the playoffs but our kids sucked it up. Hats off to those guys, and the coaches. They did a fantastic job getting these kids prepared."
In a low-scoring first half, Essex trailed early after Panthers kicker Ryan Begin connected on a 26-yard field goal, but on the last play of quarter one, the Ravens' Kennedy scored from one yard out.
Ravens kicker Matt Paonessa, who also kicked four extra points, nailed a 25-yard field goal in the first three minutes of the second half to give the Ravens a 10-3 lead, but on the last play of the third quarter, Cumberland's Dickson swept around left end and traveled 60 yards to knot the score after Begin's extra point.
In the fourth, Cumberland scored twice, once on a Dickson 30-yard run, and a single on the ensuing kickoff. Essex tied the game and forced the overtime dramatics, with 99 seconds left, when Kennedy, who suffered a knee injury on the final drive, found Whitfield twice, first with a 10-yard touchdown pass, and then on a two-point conversion.
"The conversion was a choice call so the receivers either run a hook or a fade, and I went to Whitfield all night, so I knew I'd go to him again," said the QB. "He ran a hook, he stopped right at the goal line, and I actually thought I overthrew him but he jumped higher than you could imagine and got up there and caught it."
"Our kids just refused to quit. They refused to lose. It wasn't an option," said Mills.
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