That thud heard recently was the high-flying Cochrane Lions crashing back to Earth.
The team that hadn’t won in 20 games over three seasons, before stringing a pair of May playoff victories together, took it flush on the chin in the Calgary Area Midget Football Association (CAMFA) Division 2 final. It was the Calgary Hilltoppers dishing it out in a 66-1 rout May 29 at Calgary’s Shouldice Park, Hellard Field.
But the Lions took a stiff body blow before the first ball was snapped, when starting linebacker Cole Perron went down with stomach flu prior to kickoff. The Hilltoppers took full advantage, running Miles Brown right at the gap Perron was supposed to fill. Brown ran for four touchdowns in the first half of the contest as Hilltoppers led 32-0 at the half.
“We got beaten by a better team today,” said Lions head coach Jud Graham, who returns as Springbank Community High School Phoenix line coach in the fall. “This team that beat us, quite frankly, their division was a lot harder than ours.”
An early first-quarter fumble and 48-yard Des Catellier field-goal attempt that bounced off the left upright were signs it wasn’t going to be Cochrane’s night. That, and the Hilltoppers never let their foot off the gas from opening kickoff.
“It was tough. Their pass rush is really good. It was hard to get going on offence,” said Scott Haigh, a Lions running back in his final season with the team who still has his senior year at Bow Valley High School ahead of him. “Through and through, they were a better team. I think we played poorly, but they were better than us. It wasn’t our night, that’s for sure.”
Compared to last three seasons (0-20), the Lions went 2-1 in the playoffs this spring and hope to build off that.
To that end, Graham stated: “We have great things ahead for the future. We have Des Catellier coming back at quarterback next year. We have some great receivers coming back. We have some great linebackers coming back. Our Grade 9’s really stepped up this year. Most of these teams don’t play Grade 9’s. At the end of the day, we took a lot of positives from this season.”
But the squad needs more than the 30-35 Grades 9-11 guys it dressed in 2014. Looking across the sidelines during any game, the Lions would see 50 or more players looking back at them.
“Hopefully we can recruit more kids next season,” said Graham, who brought a raft of Springbank Phoenix coaches and players to the Lions’ midget effort. “We’ve got to break whatever that barrier is that’s stopping bantam kids from Cochrane from coming up and playing midget in Grade 9 and then staying with the program after Grade 9. Some of that is getting kids in schools talking about what a good time they had this year. That I think will bring kids out. Winning is infections for sure.”
