The schedule for day two of the boys soccer South Central Zone Finals, May 24-25, was already gruelling enough without having to play two overtime matches.

Yet the Bow Valley Bobcats persevered and came away with a bronze medal after a heartbreaking semifinal overtime loss to the Holy Trinity Academy before winning 5-4 in overtime against  the stubborn Cochrane Cobras.

The Bobcats controlled much of the first half against Holy Trinity Academy and even appeared to have a goal but at the end of regulation they were deadlocked and in overtime were upset, 3-2, losing their first game of the 2017 season.

In the bronze medal match they took a comfortable 4-2 lead into the second half but, much like in the Rocky View regular season matchup, the determined Cobras came back to tied it, 4-4,  and forced overtime. This time, though, the Bobcats scored the only goal of the 30-minute mini-game to win 5-4.

The weather for the two-day zone finals was piercing. High winds and heavy rain delayed the final games of the round-robin from day one until day two, pushing the finals to a 4 p.m. Even then, the weather changed from sunny to moderate winds to rain and howling gusts and at points it looked like hail, or even snow, would fall. Yet, to the teams' credit, they dug deep and focused on their games.

Both Cochrane teams were undefeated in their respective pools of the round-robin and the hopes of an all-Cochrane gold medal match were dashed in the semis. The Cobras fell to Brooks in their semi-final match. 

In the round-robin, the Bobcats beat Canmore, 2-1, Strathmore, 6-3, and Brooks, 2-1. The Cobras beat Foothills Composite, 3-1, Holy Trinity, 4-2, and Didsbury, 3-1.

Bobcats coach Rob Kimura was impressed with how his players shock off the semifinal loss and how their hard work paid off in the end.

"That was a toughy to give up," says Kimura. "The toughest thing is to get the kids' heads back in it, but they shook it off between games and they came to play."

"They're tough to play against, because they work hard. To me, that's all you can ask for. I'm happy we won, it was good for them."

The Bobcats took silver in last year's zone after matching up against Canmore in the finals.