And now for something completely different.

Lake Travis (11-0) took care of business Thursday night, dispatching Crockett (4-7) 58-7 for the bi-district championship.

The Cavaliers will now go from playing arguably the worst team in the region to the best – other than Lake Travis – in Cibolo Steele next week. The Knights need to top San Antonio Jefferson Friday night in San Antonio to ensure that meeting.

The Cavaliers wasted no time getting the playoff campaign started, striking in three plays on their first drive on a 25-yard run by Andy Erickson. A conversion pass later from Michael Brewer to Alex Matthews made it 8-0.

“We prepared for them just like any other team and knew we had to just play our game,” Lake Travis receiver Conner Floyd said. “We weren’t really surprised at how it went. We knew they weren’t going to be Steele.”

Three plays into the next Lake Travis drive, Brewer hit a swinging Erickson up the near sideline, and Erickson dashed 70 yards for his second score of the game. A fake field goal pass failed, and Lake Travis led 14-0.

Crockett got its first and only glimmer of hope on the ensuing drive, as quarterback Paul Wagner eluded the Cavalier rush and hit Ryan Vaughan for an 81-yard touchdown pass to pull the Cougars within a score at 14-7.

Erickson returned Crockett’s kickoff to its own 19-yard line, setting up a deep, 19-yard fade from Brewer to Griffin Gilbert. The conversion pass failed, leaving the score at 20-7.

Lake Travis then scored another 38 unanswered points. Taylor Wrinkle intercepted a Crockett pass and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown, Erickson ran for two more scores on back-to-back drives, Jack Patton ran a score in from 11 yards out and Matthews caught a short pass and took it 19 yards for the final score of the first half. Lake Travis led 55-7 at the break, and would add a 25-yard field goal by Kramer Fyfe on the heels of a big drive by the junior varsity – which was primarily running the ball – to finish the Cavalier scoring spree with 49 seconds left in the third quarter.

The big win was a nice touch for the seniors who have now played their last game at the Lake Travis Athletic Complex. It was especially momentous for senior linebacker Ian Lazarus, who was joined on the field by freshman defensive back and brother Griffin Lazarus for a series on defense, as well as Quinton Crow and Wrinkle, joined by brothers Corbin and Cameron.

“The first play he was in, he was manned up on [Ryan Vaughan],” the elder Lazarus said of his brother’s unfortunate assignment against Crockett’s best player. “I was on the other side of the field, so I was a little worried. I sprinted all the way over to make sure he could handle it, but he was feisty about it. He did fine. It was cool to have him in there.”

Brewer finished the game with 12 completions on 15 attempts for 215 yards and three scores. Erickson ran the ball nine times for 76 yards and three scores and caught one pass for 70 yards and a touchdown. Wrinkle intercepted two passes, including the one for a touchdown. Lake Travis extended its state-best winning streak to 41 games, and won its third straight bi-district championship.

If favorite Steele does indeed topple Jefferson, next week’s area championship is tentatively scheduled for Saturday at noon in the Alamodome in San Antonio.