Goalkeeper Robbie Cochrane was “comfortable and confident” going into the shootout to decide Cowichan LMG’s Jackson Cup quarter-final match against Comox Valley United last Saturday.
“I got this, boys,” he told his teammates between overtime and the shootout.
And he did.
Cochrane made the first and fourth saves, and watched another shot sail over the crossbar, and his team needed only three shooters to take the shootout and win the match 2-1 to advance to the semifinals.
“Robbie was the Man of the Match, easily, but it was a team effort for sure,” Cowichan coach Ryan Flynn commented.
Comox opened the scoring in the second minute of the match, with a goal that the Cowichan players felt should have been called offside.
“They played to the whistle and we didn’t,” Flynn said with a shrug. “It was a little bit tough to take, but we kept plugging along.”
Cowichan had quite a few chances as the match went on, but weren’t rewarded until the 69th minute when a Cowichan free kick went in off a Comox defender. That was it for regulation. And although the lights went off about five minutes into overtime, delaying the game for about half an hour, the rest of the match was uneventful in terms of scoring, setting the stage for Cochrane’s shootout heroics.
“Neither team wanted to make a mistake [in overtime],” Flynn said. “You could feel it.”
In cup play, a win is a win, and Flynn will take them in any form.
“It’s good to get a win,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how as long as you keep winning games.”
Starting centre back Russell Lederer and winger Mike Daniels were lost to serious injuries during the Comox games, and Flynn doesn’t expect them back for Cowichan’s semifinal match this Friday against Bays United on the Sherman Road turf at 7:30 p.m.
Cowichan hasn’t lost to Bays this year, playing to a scoreless draw in November and winning 3-1 in January, but Flynn expects a battle this time around and is hoping for a big crowd to cheer his side on.
“It will take an unreal game for us to be able to win,” he said.
In Div. 4, the Cowichan Farmstore Fury were off last weekend and will be at home this Saturday against Castaways Invicta at 4 p.m.