A pair of Airdrie high schools scored wins under the Friday night lights.
Actually, only one was played late enough to be under the lights, but both wins were impressive.
The George McDougall Mustangs claimed their first victory of the Rocky View High School league season, knocking off the Springbank Phoenix 40 - 7 at Airdrie's Ed Eggerer Field. The Mustangs improved to 1 - 1 with the victory with the win coming following a 22 - 17 loss to the W.H. Croxford in their opener. It was the first game of the season for the Phoenix.
The Croxford Cavaliers ran their season record to 3 - 0 as they downed the Bow Valley Bobcats 24 - 7. The Cavs are the only Rocky View team to have played three games this season and have scored previous wins over Chestermere and George McDougall. Bow Valley has lost both of their starts but have put up strong efforts in both, losing 23 - 7 to the Bert Church Chargers in their first game.
Both the Cavaliers and Mustangs were ranked in the Football Alberta Top Ten in Week One rankings with Croxford ranked third and George McDougall fifth among Tier Two schools with a school population of between 750 and 1,249. The Week Two rankings will come out later today.
Meantime, an exhibition game that was to be the Football Alberta "High School Game of the Week" between the Cochrane Cobras and the Saint Francis Browns from Calgary has been cancelled due to a shortage of officials. The game was originally postponed until Monday but a release from Football Alberta now says the game has been cancelled, "due to unforeseen circumstances."
Football Alberta says that the game's cancellation speaks to the problems with the scarcity of officials in all sports and football is not immune to this phenomenon. It says the organization has been concerned about the shortage of officials for a few years and, starting this year, has increased its investment in tackling officials development sixfold. $30,000 is being dedicated to officials' recruitment, training, and exchanges between the larger centers and smaller official associations to give more exposure for small-town refs to higher-level games.
The perennial powerhouse Cobras once again find themselves ranked first among Tier Three schools with a population between 450 and 799. The Browns are listed at number six among Tier One schools with a population of over 1,250.
Next week in the Rocky View Sports Association, the Cobras take on their cross-town rivals the Bobcats at 4:00 pm Friday at Spray Lakes Field in Cochrane while the Bert Church Chargers travel to Utley Field in Chestermere for a 7:00 pm game with the Lakers that night. On Saturday the Croxford Cavaliers will look to keep their season perfect when they play the Springbank Phoenix in a game starting at 1:00 pm at Rundle College.
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