The Cochrane High Cobras football team is back in the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) league final after they handily defeated the Bert Church Chargers 50-7 on Oct. 20 in the 'A' semi-final. Cochrane High will now face off against the second-ranked Springbank Phoenix in the final on Oct. 27. The Cobras got out to a bit of a slow start by their standards, before scoring three touchdowns right before halftime on Bert Church allowing them to coast in the second half to victory. Co-head coach Rob McNab stated it's a nice accomplishment to make the league finals even though the team's end goal is a fifth straight provincial championship. "You always want to advance and play in your league final and that's one step we're trying to get to, we're pretty happy about it and we're looking forward to Saturday," McNab said. "I thought we played pretty good (against the Chargers) it was a little bit of a slow start, which seems to be a trait we've picked up with all the young guys starting but before the half we got three touchdowns in the last three minutes which helped us out immensely heading into the second, got our confidence up and we played from there." The Cobras have suffered many injuries throughout the season including season-ending injuries to receivers Dawson Laye as well as Dawson Gladue. However , due to the play of quarterback Xavier Valliancourt as well as the Cobras depth at the receiver position, they've barely missed a beat. "We have pretty good depth at the receiver position right now, so when those other guys went down, it was just a matter of the new guys stepping up and having Xavier feeling comfortable with these kids," McNab said. "I think he's really starting to feel comfortable with them. Everybody's got their little tricks when they're running their routes, but he keeps producing that's for sure. As long as we can keep him upright, he's going to complete way more than he's not." "Dylan Neis has been a standout all year, Cole Higginson is really coming around as the starting slot back, Jake Thompson played for a half on the weekend and had really good numbers and produced ... then we have Derek Reid on the other side, who's banged up as well but he had a real good game. What the kids do well is they know what we're trying to achieve and they work fast so we can get to where we want to go." Cochrane High played Springbank earlier in the year, a game the Cobras won 40-9. The league final should be a bit different with the two teams being close in the standings. Cochrane High is a perfect 7-0, scoring a league high 286 points while only giving up 46 in comparison to Springbank's 6-1 record where they've scored 157 points while allowing 74 points. These two teams have met in the league final the past few seasons and McNab expects a dog fight. "They've had a coaching change this year and have changed up a few things. I'm not sure if there's necessarily a rivalry there, but playing them in the league finals so many times could lead to a rivalry being established," McNab said. "They're a very good team. They're very well coached and have really improved over the last few weeks since we played them in the first week of the season ... their improvement is really good. They play fast and physical and we need to be prepared for what they're going to do." "They're just getting us to their new coaching staff and the players are buying into what they want to achieve ... they've won all their games since we played them and I can definitely see the improvements on film from them. It's black and white and there's no question that they're a much improved team since we saw them." Kickoff for the RVSA championship will take place at noon up at Spray Lake Sawmills Legacy Field.
