All season, No. 1 Lake Travis (12-0) has talked about wanting a competitive game, one in which the starters played from start to finish.

Be careful what you wish for.

Cibolo Steele (9-3) gave the Cavaliers all they could handle, but came up short on the biggest play of the game, giving Lake Travis a 27-20 win.

With 17 seconds left in the game on fourth and goal at the Lake Travis four-yard line, Steele running back Malcolm Brown got the nod, but was met by a wall of Lake Travis defenders and dragged to the turf. The Cavaliers erupted in celebration, and the Knights were left asking what could have been.

Brown ran for 299 yards on 34 carries and a touchdown, carrying his team offensively, but with the game on the line and time at a premium, Knights head coach Mike Jinks opted to pass twice – both falling incomplete despite hitting the receivers – before putting everything on his star running back.

“I was definitely surprised by the play-calling at the end,” Lake Travis defensive coordinator Hank Carter said. “They felt like they’d had some success with the play-action pass and I guess they felt like it would work again, and really, it did – they just fell incomplete. We were expecting run. I can’t say enough about the way our kids hung in there and battled. They stepped up on the biggest play of the game, and made plays for us all night.”

That defense had to step up, as the Cavaliers gave Steele more opportunities to take control of the game than they’ve given any other team this season.

The Knights’ first points of the game came on a high snap that Lake Travis punter Jack Patton couldn’t quite get to, and it rolled out of the back of the end zone for a safety. On the ensuing drive, Steele marched 12 plays for 54 yards, taking a 5-0 lead with a 33-yard field goal by Jeremy Sanchez.

Lake Travis looked to be on the brink of a quick response, flying down the field on six quick plays before quarterback Michael Brewer dropped back on a screen and didn’t get enough on the pass. Steele defensive end Andre Jenkins intercepted the pass and took it 80 yards for a touchdown. Sanchez’s kick put Lake Travis in a 12-0 hole with 11:44 left in the second quarter.

“[Jenkins] didn’t rush on the screen, and I thought the pass would get past him, but he got a hand on it and tipped it down and took off,” Brewer said. “It’s a play that probably doesn’t happen nine times out of 10, but it did, and all you can do is tip your hat and come back out ready to go.”

But Lake Travis had trouble doing that, spinning its wheels on the next drive and punting away.

On the third play from scrimmage, facing a third-and14 from his own nine-yard line, Brown found a seam near the right hash mark and took off. But with about 20 yards to go, Lake Travis safety Collin Lagasse caught Brown and forced a fumble, which teammate Taylor Wrinkle recovered. It was a play similar to the one former Lake Travis defensive back Sean Robinson made in 2007’s state title win over Highland Park.

“I told Collin at halftime that we will talk about that play forever in this program,” Lake Travis head coach Chad Morris said. “I really felt like that was a turning point for us.”

“Obviously we were in that position because we had screwed up a lot on that play,” Carter said. “But we had a similar play against Crockett last week that we tried to go for the turnover and missed the tackle. [Lagasse] did everything right, hustling down the field, never giving up and making a play.”

Starting at their own 32-yard line, Lake Travis charged down the field, eventually scoring on a 21-yard run by Andy Erickson. Kramer Fyfe’s kick sailed wide, leaving the Cavaliers trailing 12-6 with 6:03 left in the first half.

Lake Travis followed with a critical stop that forced a Steele punt deep in its own territory, giving the Cavaliers prime field position at the Knights’ 39-yard line. Two plays later, Brewer darted up the left side of the field for 32-yard touchdown run, and with Fyfe’s kick, Lake Travis had its first lead of the game, 13-12.

That’s where the lead would stay until halftime. The sequence of events in the game were eerily similar to last year’s Area Championship, in which Lake Travis trailed by two scores in the first half, rallied for a score just before halftime and then opened the second half with the ball.

Just like in last year’s game, Lake Travis scored on that opening possession in the second half, this time on a two-yard run by Brewer to make it 20-12.

But when it seemed the momentum was all Lake Travis’, Brown put the Knights on his back. On a seven-play drive, Brown carried the ball for 78 of the 80 yards gained by Steele, and scored on a 25-yard run on fourth-and-three. He then ran in untouched for the game-tying two-point conversion.

Then, the game really started to get interesting.

Lake Travis was shut down on three plays by the Knights’ defense, and Steele defensive back Jake Hatcher nearly took off with what would have been a sure interception for a touchdown, but Erickson was able to break up the pass at the last second. Hatcher’s day got worse on the ensuing play, when he fumbled a punt return that Wrinkle then recovered, giving Lake Travis the ball at the Steele 33-yard line.

Three plays later, the Cavaliers made it count on a screen from Brewer to Erickson that Erickson took 28 yards for the touchdown, giving Lake Travis a 27-20 lead.

Steele took 12 plays to go 65 yards on the following drive, but the Cavaliers stuffed Brown on fourth-and-two at the Lake Travis 35-yard line. It foreshadowed the biggest moment of the game.

Lake Travis reached as far as the Steele 25-yard line on its next drive, but was forced to punt from its own 33 on fourth-and-11, pinning the Knights at their own seven-yard line.

With 6:16 left in the game, Steele started its march, chewing up the clock as it rolled along, eventually reaching the Lake Travis four-yard line before spiking the ball on first down to stop the clock and set up the final three plays.

For probably the first time in the last three years, the Lake Travis defense came up with more big plays than its offense, and it did so when the team needed it most.

“I just remember going into those last three plays determined not to lose the game. It wasn’t going to happen,” Lake Travis linebacker Ian Lazarus said. “I always visualize that scenario and we came up with a big play.”

Erickson finished the game with 68 yards on 10 carries and 93 yards on five receptions, and Brewer completed 12 of 19 pass attempts for 169 yards, an interception a touchdown pass. He also ran 12 times for 57 yards and two scores.

Lake Travis will play Corpus Christi Flour Bluff (11-1) in the Region IV semifinal next Saturday at noon in the Alamodome.