Alberta medals in Football Canada Cup

Three Cochrane Cobras are returning to town with national football medals.

A landslide win over the defending national champions saw Team Alberta walk away with a bronze medal at the U18 Football Canada Cup in Regina yesterday.

Alberta shone in all aspects of the game in the 35-0 win over Saskatchewan.

Kohen Bohnet, who was Alberta’s offensive player of the game and a quarterback with the George McDougall Mustangs, threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as they cruised to the win.

Bohnet’s run opened the scoring midway through the first quarter, and he put the game away with a pair of scoring passes late in the second, a 20-yarder to Seth Poelzer and a 63-yard bomb to Liam Piccinin, giving his side a 21-0 halftime lead.

Alberta’s other touchdowns came in the third quarter on a seven-yard Ethan Grannum rush and in the fourth when Aldin Bilalbegovic caught a nine-yard pass from Kohen Bohnet.

Running back Poelzer, of the Holy Trinity Knights, went on to be named the tournament’s offensive MVP,

Cochrane Cobras DB Solomon Carlson, D-lineman Bennett Fauth, and O-lineman Caleb Wetherell all made Alberta’s 40-player roster. Three other Rocky View high school players were selected.

Alberta’s defence allowed a mere 12 points in the entire national tournament. All were in their semifinal game against Quebec after they opened the tournament with a 22-0 in over New Brunswick.

Team Alberta was relegated to the bronze medal game after losing a controversial semifinal game against Quebec, 12-11. An appeal was unsuccessful.

READ: Team Alberta unsuccessful in appeal of controversial loss

In a written statement, Football Alberta expressed disappointment in how Alberta was stripped of its hard-fought victory due to officiating errors, but praised Football Canada for publicly acknowledging that an “egregious error” was made.

“We also acknowledge that despite that public recognition, we have to accept the ruling from Football Canada that games do not get overturned post-contest for human error–even in worst situations such as these.”

Ontario cruised to a 45-7 win over Quebec to win their first Football Canada Cup in 10 years.

Both Alberta and Ontario were awarded bronze medals last year when the medal games were cancelled due to air quality concerns in the host city of Edmonton. Saskatchewan and Quebec were both awarded gold medals as co-champions.