Three yards and a cloud of dust worked once for Lampasas (1-5, 0-2) Friday night at Badger Stadium, and that was it, as Lake Travis (7-0, 3-0) cruised to a 38-7 victory after a slow start.

The Badgers’ Wing-T formation created problems for the Cavalier defense early in the game, as assignments and coverage broke down, keeping the game close as Lampasas chewed up the clock on offense.

“They did a lot of things that kept us on the field tonight,” Lake Travis linebacker Quinton Crow said of the Lampasas ground attack. “They found ways to hurt us and we made a lot of mistakes as you could probably tell early on. You have to be gap-sound, you absolutely have to know what you’re doing on every play or it will catch you off-guard.”

Luckily for Lake Travis, when the Cavalier offense was on the field, it was relatively business as usual, despite some slippery conditions that slowed down the high-octane offense. Lake Travis quarterback Michael Brewer led the charge, completing 22 of 29 passes for 343 yards.

Lake Travis marched 75 yards on its opening drive, finishing it off with a six-yard touchdown run by Andy Erickson. A Kramer Fyfe extra point made it 7-0 Cavaliers, and it appeared to be business as usual for the team with the state’s longest active winning streak, now at 37 games.

But the Badgers answered in three plays on the following drive, evening things up thanks, in part, to a 68-yard scoring dash by running back Edward Hall.

Lake Travis tried its best to fire back an immediate response, but the Badger defense got stingy and the Cavaliers committed a costly holding penalty on third-and-10, and had to settle for a 27-yard field goal by Fyfe.

After forcing a Lampasas three-and-out, Lake Travis made it a 10-point lead when Brewer sprinted in from six yards out with 10:13 left in the first half.

The Badgers then put together a drive that lasted over eight minutes, but it sputtered out at the Lake Travis 25 when the Badgers fumbled and the Cavaliers recovered.

Lake Travis then covered 42 yards in two plays, but at the end of the second play, receiver Conner Floyd fumbled the ball away and the Badgers ran out the half in three plays. The Cavaliers disputed the fumble recovery call, but it didn’t matter. At the break, Lake Travis was leading 17-7 – its smallest leading margin of the season at halftime.

Surprisingly, Lake Travis head coach wasn’t terribly upset when he headed into the locker room.

“I loved it,” Morris said. “For once, we had a little different look going into halftime, and things weren’t going our way. It was exactly what we needed. And I mean it when I say that Lampasas team is much improved. I can’t say enough about the job [Lampasas head coach] Joey McQueen has done over there and the effort those kids play with.”

In theory, the Badgers did all they could do on the night. Lampasas committed just two penalties for 10 total yards compared to Lake Travis’ seven penalties for 80 yards, and the Badgers turned the ball over just once. Lampasas collected 236 rushing yards, and that helped keep the Cavalier offense off the field. It was the right plan, it just wasn’t remotely enough to counter Lake Travis’ firepower on offense.

The Badgers received the ball to open the second half and stalled out at the 50-yard line, and Lake Travis quickly got to work, scoring on a 12-yard run by Erickson to make it 24-7.

Lampasas made it down to the Cavalier 21-yard line on the next drive, but couldn’t convert on fourth-and-six, and Lake Travis countered with an 83-yard drive that ended with another Erickson touchdown, this time from 21 yards out to make it 31-7.

A Taylor Wrinkle interception set up the Cavaliers’ next scoring drive, which ended with an eight-yard pass from Brewer to Floyd to make it 38-7.

Floyd finished the night with eight catches for 138 yards, and three other Cavalier receivers – Erickson, Tanner Gillette and Griffin Gilbert – had over 40 yards of receiving each. Erickson led Lake Travis on the ground with 10 attempts for 82 yards.

Up next for the Cavaliers – the district’s only other remaining unbeaten – Hendrickson.

“I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect game to prepare us for what Hendrickson can do,” Morris said. “This really was exactly what we needed.”