Kobras host conference playoff game tomorrow

Kevin McBain
of The Clarion

The Kindersley Kobras hosted the Meadow Lake Spartans Friday in the team’s regular season finalé and they came up big.

The Kobras trounced the visiting Spartans, winning by a score of 40-0 and earn first-place, with a 3-3 record, among the 3A teams in the conference, enabling them to host a playoff game.

This game ends up being a rematch against the Spartans, back in Kindersley tomorrow afternoon beginning at 4 p.m.

If the Kobras win, they will host a provincial playoff game Oct. 28th beginning at 1 p.m.

Coach Tavis Lehman was pretty happy at the way his team played.

“It is tough to criticize the way the team played in a game like this,” he said. “The only thing that we may re-visit is our special team’s play and make sure that everything is good there.”

One of the keys of the game was getting off to a quick start.

The Kobras kicked off to the Spartans to start off the game. They went two and out.

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A good punt return by Bricen Allin, enabled the Kobras to get deep into Spartan territory which was capped off with a 15 yard run by Grade 12 player Brandon Veldhoen, who dominated on the field Friday.

“It was really nice to get that early touchdown. It got the guys excited about football again,” said Lehman.

Veldhoen would socre once again on a 47-yard run this time, with 35.8 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

In the second, Veldhoen would strike once again, this time on a 50-yard pass and run play from Hudson Bahm. A two-point try failed and  the score was 19-0, for the only score of the second quarter.

The second half wasn’t much different for the Kobras even with a change in quarterback that saw Veldhoen coming into the game for Bahm.

“We just wanted to see how he would handle being a quarterback,” said Lehman.

“He is such a great running back and a defensive lineman though we don’t want to put him in that situation very often.”

At the 6:10 mark of the third. He hit Damian Cormons on a long pass for another score.

In the final quarter, Veldhoen, this time, made a shovel pass to Kevin Pinno who took it in from 22 yards.

Veldhoen capped off the scoring on a 37-yard quarterback keeper to make the score 40-0.

Some of the senior players were able to play multiple positions in this game and they showed their strength.

“We’ve been looking for a time to let the seniors play different positions,” said Lehman. “They did pretty well.”

As they prepare for Thursday’s game, Lehman said the the team will go over some video of the game and…

“The biggest thing is working on how to deal with adversity…the mental aspect of the game,” he said.

The fan and sponsor support for the team has been fantastic this year and Lehman hopes that the fans will come out and cheer again for them Thursday. Again, if the team comes out on top, they will host a provincial quarter-final game Oct. 28th.

Excellent support…

The Kobras teamed up with the Life Worth Living Foundation and it was a huge success. Eleven businesses were involved and contributed $870 per touchdown for a maximum of five.

They were successful and were able to raise $4,350 – with half going to the Foundation and the other half going to the Kobras’ football team.

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