A new sports banner has been added to the walls of the Bow Valley High School gymnasium, courtesy of their senior girls’ soccer team.

The Bow Valley Bobcats overcame the defending champion Olds Spartans, Oct. 19, to be crowned the tier 2 soccer championship of the southwest zone of Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA).

After 90 minutes of regulation, the game remained scoreless between the evenly matched teams and a 3-2 shootout gave the Bobcats the win. Jaeden Hiebert, Abi Hamm and Autumn Carr scored for the Bobcats and goalkeeper Riyan Dillon-St. Pierre was stellar in the shootout and throughout the game.

The Spartans beat the Bobcats in a pair of exhibition games earlier this season, making the zone win especially sweet. That exposure to Spartans helped the Bobcats develop a coverage strategy. The attention the team pays to shootout drills also paid off.

Bobcats head coach Rob Makkreel says the Bobcats’ defensive style results in many low scoring games and creates the potential for tied games in regulation. After losing a bronze medal game several years ago on penalty shots the team started to make shootout drills an integral part of their practice.

“Every practice we spend a lot of time on penalty shots because a lot of the times it comes down to winning on penalty shots,” explain Makkreel.

“This year we won zones on penalty shots. Monday’s game (today) could be close and I’m comfortable in knowing any one of our 11 girls on the field can put one in the net if it goes to a shootout.”

This is the first zone soccer banner for Bow Valley and Makkreel believes the future is bright.

“We’ve been close,” says Makkreel. “We’ve come second, we’ve come third zones. This is our first banner. I’ve talked to the girls and I told them they have the opportunity to sign their names and have something up in the gym for a legacy. That’s how it all starts.”

In a few years, Bow Valley will have a larger student population than Cochrane High and this is the first year they have the equal number of grade 9 students, he says.

“It’s hard because we’re a small school. This is the first time that we’re starting to get critical mass and we’re a little bit larger.”

The Bobcats have been building momentum heading into the Rocky View Sports playoffs that start today, Oct. 22. After a tough start, they won their last two games of the regular season with victories against the Bert Church Chargers and George McDougall Mustangs.

Today, they play W. H. Croxford in the Rocky View Sports (RVS) quarterfinals. The two teams tied in their regular season meeting.

Prior to that, they had a tough start against some top teams in the division. With only a few club players on their team, the Bobcats tend to improve as the players catch on to their system, Makkreel explains.

“It was a tough start and since then we’ve caught a little bit of momentum and I think that going into Monday it’s going to be a good game. We play Croxford again and we should be better prepared for them.

“I’m excited,” says Makkreel. “We’re hopefully going to have three more great games on soccer and hopefully get a medal. Ultimately that’s the goal, to play on Thursday.”

The third-place Springbank Phoenix and Bert Church Chargers matchup in the other quarterfinal game.

Meanwhile, the undefeated Cochrane Cobras and second place Chestermere Lakers wait in the wings to enter in the semifinals, Oct. 23. The Cobras are hosting one of the semifinal games.

The finals are Oct. 25 at Monklands Park in Airdrie.