By Max Thompson

So much for another district title challenger.

Lake Travis (6-0, 2-0) walloped Hutto (4-2, 0-2) 55-20 in the Hippos’ home stadium Friday night, further establishing an ominous presence in district 25-4A, particularly as the rest of the scores in the district remain close.

For a brief moment, though, Hutto had every reason to believe it was going to be its night. The Hippos marched 66 yards on their opening drive, scoring on a 21-yard run by quarterback Ryan Naivar that sent the home crowd into a frenzy, and put a hint of doubt in the Lake Travis stands. The Hippos’ 6-0 lead – the extra point attempted sailed wide right – would last for all of 24 seconds. It was the last time they would lead.

Lake Travis scored on two plays on the ensuing drive – a 29-yard pass from quarterback Garrett Gilbert to running back Chris Aydam, and then a 41-yard strike to Cade McCrary, who caught the ball and flew up a seam in the middle of the field to tie the game. Kramer Fyfe nailed Lake Travis’ extra point attempt, and the Cavaliers went up 7-6.

Once the momentum was back on the Lake Travis sideline, the defense seemed to settle in, stopping Hutto in three plays on the following possession. The veer option attack the Hippos employ just kept getting strung out by a patient Lake Travis defense.

“Our coaches did a really good job getting us ready, we’ve been in the film room every morning at 7:30,” Lake Travis cornerback Jack Hourin said. “We used that to shut them down.”

In fact, the preparation was so thorough that the Cavaliers saw a little less from the Hippos than they expected.

“[Hutto] didn’t really show us anything we weren’t expecting,” Hourin said. “We actually were anticipating a trick play to start the game, and I kept drifting back waiting for it, and eventually I just said, ‘screw this, I’m going for the run.’”

Meanwhile, the Cavalier offense and special teams unit piled on.

Austin Pollard returned the next Hutto punt over 60 yards for a touchdown, Gilbert hit McCrary again for a five-yard score and a 22-yard score, and just 30 seconds into the second quarter, Lake Travis was up 27-6.  The Cavaliers punched one more score in on a two-yard run by Aydam with 7:41 left in the quarter, to take a 34-6 lead into the break.

The early jump by Hutto clearly didn’t faze a Lake Travis team that has trailed in a number of games this season, but has yet to register a loss.

“We knew they were going to have a high-powered offense, and something we hadn’t seen before this season,” Lake Travis receiver Cade McCrary said. “And our defense just focused on making that one big stop, while we tried to answer on offense.”

Quick scoring strikes sucked the life out of the Hutto players and fans, and even at the 14-6 mark, it was clear it was Lake Travis’ game to lose.

“It definitely helped the momentum,” McCrary said of the quick scores.

Still, the Cavaliers were surprised at how quickly they ran away with the game.

“I didn’t expect that at all,” McCrary said. “We came in and knew this was going to be a tough game, and we knew we’d have to play our best game. It was a good win.”

Lake Travis kept rolling in the second half, scoring on a 10-yard pass from Gilbert to Conner Floyd that was set up by two big runs by Andy Erickson.

After another defensive stop, the Cavaliers scored on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Gilbert to Austin Pollard with 8:17 still left in the third quarter to go up 48-6. The first team hit the field one more time on offense before the game ended, with Gilbert connecting for his sixth touchdown pass of the night on a 23-yard dump across the middle of the field to Colton Volpe, who did the rest of the work, bouncing off Hippo defenders on his way to the end zone for a 55-6 lead.

Hutto managed two more scores against the Lake Travis reserves, but it still took them 22 total plays for those two scores. It was a big night for everyone in black and red.

Despite an emphatic 50-9 win over Killeen to open district play last week, there were still some people picking against the Cavaliers this week. They of course used that as motivation heading into the game.
The players are used to the skepticism.

“I don’t think they’ll ever learn. They want that upset, but I don’t think they’re going to get it anytime soon,” Hourin said. “We’re playing hard and we want to win our district, and we want to win every game big so we can get everyone some playing time, and get ready for the playoffs.”

McCrary agreed.

“It’s just like last year,” he said. “People keep picking all these upsets, and we just have to keep proving to people that we’re a top-notch team.”

Lake Travis will continue its quest for respect next week at home against Lampasas for homecoming.

Gilbert completed 13 of 15 passes for 273 and six scores in the game, and the Cavaliers needed just 31 plays from scrimmage to score 55 points.