The Cochrane Cobras and Bow Valley Bobcats girls soccer teams duked it out in Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) semi final action with the winner going for the gold medal, and the loser playing for bronze.
The Cobras 4-2 victory on Oct. 17 avenged a loss to Bow Valley last season that forced Cochrane High to miss the divisional final for the first time in seven years. Cobras head coach Carolyn Mcleod was pleased with her team’s effort through less than ideal conditions to book a trip back to the gold medal match.
“I think the team did really well. We started strong right off the bat, and had a lot of possession in the first half,” Mcleod said.
“We got a little down in the second, made some changes and had everyone playing so the wheels came off a bit … but kudos to Bow Valley for throwing everything at us. To make it back to the gold medal game was our goal from game one and not doing what we did last year, which was play for bronze … it was hard to play in that game knowing we wanted the gold.”
The game started off in a rainstorm, which was short lived but strong wind gusts persisted throughout the game, which dropped the temperature and potentially changed each team’s game plan. The Cobras scored two goals early in the first half, and once more right before the break to take a 3-0 lead. Cochrane High then scored once more to make it 4-0 early in the second half before Bow Valley came back with goals off a penalty kick and a corner kick to put the score at 4-2.
Bobcats head coach Rob Makkreel said he was very proud of his team, regardless of the results.
“Our game was really good I thought. We were worried about two things, one was the free kicks within 30 yards, because with the wind the ball can go in from anywhere … we gave up a couple of those. The second thing was the wind, it is like another player,” Makkreel said.
“You have to hunker down, and they broke through us a couple times.”
While both Cochrane coaches shared the mutual feeling of pride, they had differing views about how the weather may have changed the outcome of the contest.
“The wind didn’t play as big of a factor as we thought it would … it came in gusts but we were predicting worse. It was cold, and there was this rainstorm that started us off but in terms of impacting the outcome of the game, there weren’t any balls that went in because of the wind,” Mcleod said.
“There were a couple free kicks that happened at the top of the box, and because of the wind, those go in,” Makkreel said.
“(The Cobras) got their first two goals because of that … but on the other side, we had the wind in the second half and we pushed on them and had chances.”
Both the Cobras and the Bobcats will take to the field again on Oct. 19, at Spray Lakes Legacy Field … Bow Valley will play in the bronze medal game at 4 p.m. against Airdirie’s Bert Church Chargers while Cochrane High will play for gold at 5:45 p.m. against the Springbank Phoenix.
Zone Championships will be Oct. 20 and 21 with the Tier 1 championships taking place in Springbank and Tier 2 will be played in Drumheller.
