After a 2-0 victory over the Springbank Phoenix on Oct. 15 pushing their record to a league's best of 5-0, the Cochrane High Cobras girls soccer team is looking to finish the season strong before the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) playoffs begin on Oct. 22. With one game remaining tonight against the Bert Church Chargers, the Cobras have already wrapped up first place in the league, thus a bye to the semi-finals due to their 15 points in the standings. The Cobras have dominated the competition scoring a total of 32 goals, an average of just over six goals per game while only giving up one measly goal to the W.H. Croxford Cavaliers in an 11-1 victory. Head coach Carolyn McLeod said the season has been going quite well and this year's version of the Cobras is all about the sum of it's parts instead of relying on one of two players to do damage. "The season has been really good. We've allowed one goal all season, so our back end has been pretty solid and our goaltending has obviously been really strong. The girls are really working well as a unit ... and just before that two-week hiatus of not having any league games, they really began to gel and come together. Then we went to that tournament in Drumheller and had an amazing day so it was cool to see that," McLeod said. "It's hard to say (whether this is one of the better team's McLeod has coached at Cochrane High). Every year we've got a little bit different configuration to it and we've obviously had really strong teams in the past. This year, we've got a lot of strength throughout our line up and we've got really good leadership. Our two captains (Daphne Hayes and Kiki Alexander) are just amazing at getting the girls all on board, the energy is really positive and everyone that's out on the field wants to contribute and work together." "In terms of how many Tier 1 players we have, I'd say this is the year we don't have as many. I think we have a lot of depth, they move the ball well and they look for each other. They're a really fit team and they've been doing really well ... we got a new keeper this year who came over from Bow Valley and she's been awesome this year, very positive and excited about our program and has really fit right in." McLeod also commented on her two Grade 12 captains saying it was a really easy decision to make them the leaders of the team, which included the two girls organizing the team's breast cancer awareness game against Springbank. "They've been on the team since Grade 9 and it was an easy choice. Us as coaches didn't even have to ponder it for 30 seconds ... it was Daphne and Kiki are our choices and I mean, Daphne is our top goal scorer. She won the golden boot at Zones and she's the one when we need a goal that we put up front because she's got an eye for the net. Then with Kiki, she's just a workhorse. She use to play club soccer but she's an extremely talented and dedicated downhill skier but will always come back to high school soccer. She's the most amazing and coach-able player ... she gives 110 per cent and she's a player you never want to take off the pitch because she makes a difference whenever she's out there," McLeod said. "They're really on top of communicating with the other players and making sure everyone knows when practice is and those types of things. As for the pink game, it was a surprise to me. On Friday, Kiki and Daphne once again showed their leadership and approached me and said, 'We know that the football team does this but we want to do a pink game and we actually already went and bought pink tape, headbands, toques and all this stuff and we want to organize it'. We ended up doing a 50/50 draw and the girls ended up raising $126 for breast cancer which is pretty cool and just the idea that they're selfless like that, it just speaks to their character." Kick off for the game against the Chargers tonight will go at 4:30 in Airdrie with the semi-finals taking place on Oct. 23.
