History – noun. 1. The branch of knowledge dealing with past events.
Looking back over its history, having never won an Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association South Central Zone boy’s soccer title, the Cochrane High School Cobras soccer team decided it was time for a change.
So the lads went out and rewrote the history books with a 2-1 championship victory over the Holy Trinity Academy (HTA) Knights of Okotoks at the Zone tournament June 6 at Rangers Field.
“The one thing about our boys, we had three losses this season, and they knew how to battle back. They never took anything for granted,” said Cobras head coach Carolyn McLeod. “They knew it was not going to be easy, that they were going to have to work every single game out there.”
The Cobras opened the tournament on the wrong foot, dropping a 3-2 June 5 shootout loss to the same Knights they edged in the final. Cochrane rallied to take two wins against Strathmore, 5-0 and 3-1, setting up a semifinal against Canmore, the team they couldn’t solve at last year’s Zone tournament.
“The boys probably had the game of their whole season in that one game,” McLeod said of the Canmore semifinal, a 2-0 Cobras victory. “Unbelievable. They worked for every one of those 80 minutes. Never let up, never let their focus go and stayed strong. Came out with the win.”
From there is was on to the final against Holy Trinity, which knocked Airdrie’s George McDougall from contention in the other semifinal. The George Mac Mustangs were Cochrane’s Kryptonite this year, defeating the Cobras in Rocky View Sports Association regular-season play, and in the division title match.
In the final against HTA, Robbie Reid bagged the first goal on a penalty kick before acing the golden goal on a penalty 11 minutes from full time.
“We’ve never done it before. We’ve come second a couple of times,” McLeod recalled. “We’ve come third. We’ve never actually won it before.”
The Cochrane High School Cobras boy’s soccer team has the 2014 ASAA South Central Zone banner as proof of its first title.
History is now on Cobras’ side.
