The Cochrane High Cobras football team has won the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) Division 3 Championship, and will represent Cochrane in the Tier 3 provincial tournament after a 51-0 victory over the cross town rival Bow Valley Bobcats on Nov. 4.
The game was played under frigid conditions, but that didn’t stop the Cobras from putting up 37 points in the first half and another 14 in the second half against a depleted Bobcats squad, who had many players missing due to injury. Bow Valley quarterback Austin Javorsky was forced to play both ways for the Bobcats, as he also started at safety.
Bobcats head coach Cam Cote was proud of how hard his team played, regardless of the score and that they have a foundation in place with a good group of grade 10s and 11s returning next season.
“The guys came together, we had a great team atmosphere and the guys really like to be together… I think that will build into wins as the younger players become more mature,” Cote said.
“I’m excited about next year. The guys are already in the weight room this week, they should actually take some time off … but they enjoy each other so much that they’re already putting the work in to improve next season. As a coach, it’s really great to see the team atmosphere with these guys.”
Cobras co-head coach Rob McNab said the Cobras’ win was a way to get his players back into game shape, as they haven’t played a meaningful game in close to a month.
“We needed to get back into our routine of watching film, preparing the kids, going through our game day process and walk through,” McNab said.
“Thing’s that needed to be done to get back into that routine. When you have a bye, you miss out on that, kids need routine and they’re very good when they have that routine in place … so that was an important game for us that way for sure.”
No. 1 ranked Cochrane High will now travel down Highway 1 to play the eighth ranked Brooks Buffalos in the Tier 3 regional semi-finals on Nov. 11.
McNab says Brooks presents many problems for his team, and they’ll have to have a good week of practice in order to come out on top.
“They’re a very similar, athletic team to us. They’ve got some big kids though, probably bigger than our guys … I’m not sure what to expect from Brooks, we haven’t played them in a number of years,” McNab said.
“But what I do know is that they’re generally really well coached and very physical so we’re going to try to be up for that challenge.”
The Cobras will also be practising on their grass field instead of the turf up at Spray Lake Sawmills Legacy Field in order to prepare for the conditions they’ll likely face in Brooks.
“Generally, in provincials when you’re this late in the season with the snow, you’re usually on a turf field … but they don’t have one in Brooks, and they said they were working hard to get their field ready to go,” McNab said.
“That’s where we got to go and that’s what we have to do. Our school division is gracefully scraping part of our field here so we can go get our footwear figured out and prepare ourselves for what we have to do out there in Brooks.”
Should the Cobras come out victorious, they will play the winner of the second ranked Cardston Cougars and sixth ranked Sylvan Lake Lakers match up in Cochrane on Nov. 18 in the regional finals.
Winner of the regional finals will play Nov. 24 in the Alberta Bowl provincial final in Lacombe.
