One more week. All season, Cochrane High School Cobras coach Rob McNab told his team after each win they'd earned another week to play.
One more week. All season, Cochrane High School Cobras coach Rob McNab told his team after each win they'd earned another week to play.
Their season ends Saturday, win or lose, at the Football Bowl Tier 3 provincial high school championship in Edmonton against the No. 6-ranked St. Albert Skyhawks.
The undefeated Cobras, ranked No. 2 in the province, earned the berth with a 35-7 provincial semifinal win over the Churchill Bulldogs of Lethbridge Nov. 17 at Calgary's Shouldice Park. Their businesslike performance against the Bulldogs comes on the heels of a similar quarter-final effort over Medicine Hat's No. 1-ranked Crescent Heights Vikings on Nov. 10, won 32-16 by CHS.
"We're firing the ball all over the place," Cobras coach Rob McNab said of a squad that lacks the individual star power of teams he's previously taken to the provincial championship. "Every kid caught a pass. All the running backs touched the ball.
"This is probably one of the best 'team' teams I've seen in a long time. We depend on all of them, not just two or three kids."
Evidence of that is McNab's use of both quarterbacks, Kelton Beach and Cody Stevens, against the Bulldogs. Stevens took the majority of snaps, but Beach opened and closed for CHS.
And the Cobras defence is putting it all together at the right time.
"They go to the ball really hard," McNab noted. "They might bend a little bit, but they haven't broken much this year. They put us in some good field position.
"When you have a short field offensively, it's a lot easier."
And the offence feasted on that field position, particularly receiver Kyle Moortgat who scored three touchdowns - two through the air from Stevens and one on a 60-yard end-around in the third quarter that made it 28-0 Cobras.
"We really focussed on their defence throughout the whole week," Moortgat said following the game. "We studied them well, and we came out and executed."
Justin Mount and Josh Gingrich-Hadley also scored for the Cobras, who are now studying the tendencies of the Skyhawks.
"I can't tell you anything," McNab admitted of his knowledge of St. Albert. "We'll be doing our homework. They play in a tough, tough league so they're going to be good.
"We'll be ready for them."
The Cobras and Skyhawks get it on, with the Alberta Tier 3 high school football championship on the line, Nov. 24 at Edmonton's Foote Field, 2:30 p.m. kickoff.
