Throughout this high school soccer season, there’s been the feeling of a shift in power.
Historically, the Cochrane High Cobras have been the dominate force in the town’s athletic scene, but for a while it seemed like their archrivals, the Bow Valley Bobcats finally had a real chance to usurp the longtime kings.
Unfortunately for them, they’ll have to wait another season, as the Cobras boys team has officially finished first in the Rocky View Sports Association regular-season standings, after completing their last two games with a 2-2 draw against the Bobcats before smashing the Springbank Phoenix 5-1.
The game against the Bobcats on May 19 had the all the ingredients of high drama: An overcast day, passion, pace, tension, and both sides playing some cracking soccer. Despite the exciting action, it only seemed typical there would be no winner as both teams cancelled each other out and left spectators hungry for a rematch.
“It was a very even match against Bow Valley,” said Carolyn Mcleod, Cobras head coach. “They’ve got a lot of fire power up front and strong guys in every position. It was a good matchup.
“I totally expected them to be strong. They’ve been doing very well, and we were trying to foresee what would be coming at us.”
After a clash of titans, the Cobras closed their regular-season campaign against another local rival (Springbank) who have seen a season of transition and other issues such as game cancellations due to bad weather led to a patch of problems.
The gap in class and cohesion between the sides was evident from the offset when they met at Rangers Field on May 24.
Johnny Kerr opened the scoring for the home side with a left-footed drive after he cut inside of the Phoenix defence to make it 1-0 early on.
From there it was a Cobra master class as they took advantage of a team still learning the ropes with striker Spencer Marchand, and imperious midfielder Dominik Zuczek (grabbing a well-deserved hat-trick) completing the rout, while Brent Armeneau picked up a late consolation goal for the visitors.
It could have been a bigger score-line with the Cobras knocking a couple shots off the woodwork and missing several clear-cut chances, but Mcleod was humble in victory.
“I didn’t know what they would be like,” she admitted. “Last year they had a good keeper and were quite strong, so we always had to battle them. They were a little flat today, but in fits and spurts they attacked and caught us on our heels.
“Still, they’ve had a huge turnover this year, and are trying to come back and rebuild, so we’ll take this in stride.”
After the game, Phoenix co-head coach Mike Fredrich was realistic about his team’s chances this season, considering the lack of experienced players they’ve had in this campaign.
“We didn’t expect to win, but we wanted to give them a good game,” he said. “It wasn’t too bad, it was the first time our goalie had played, and at the end of the day they are a good team.”
Fredrich’s team consists of nine Grade 12s. Two are returning members and seven have never played before, so from the outset of the campaign the Phoenix coach knew this would be a transition year
“There’s a big mixture of Grade 10s and 11s who don’t have a lot of experience,” he said. “It’s a bit of a drop-off but they’re good kids who work hard. We’ll see what happens going forward.”
As for the Cobras, they will now contemplate how to move forward, as they await the end of the season to know which team they will face in playoffs.
Whichever team they face means nothing to Mcleod. She has complete faith in her boys.
“Teams change so much in a season,” she said. “We have some things to work on and are playing around with different formations to see what we can come up with, because our guys have a lot of diversity.
“There’s not one team I’d prefer to play. We can always do better.”
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