Lady Cavs set for Drip grudge match

It’s very nearly an annual right of playoff passage.

The winner of the Lake Travis vs. Dripping Springs playoff game usually gets the nod as the region favorite, and in years past, has ended up at the state tournament.

With a 3-0 win over Hays Tuesday night at House Park, Lake Travis (18-3-2) locked up its fourth straight area title and a date with its archrival. Toni Cruse, Priyanka Guar and Emma Jones each scored in the win.

“There’s a lot of excitement,” Lake Travis head coach Jeff Gamble said. “I was a little nervous about the Hays game because you never want to trip up and not have the chance to play Drip.”

Last year, the Lady Tigers edged out the Lady Cavs in a 2-1 win in the regional quarterfinal. In 2007, Lake Travis won the region championship and a ticket to state with a 2-1 win over Dripping Springs.

The teams’ battles are rarely about revenge, though. For Lake Travis, the goal is to always meet Dripping Springs in the playoffs. That desire exists for a number of reasons for both Gamble and his players.

“To me it’s that they’re the top-ranked team in the region, and Boerne Champion is right there with them. So I just want to shock the top-ranked team in the region,” Gamble said. “To the kids, it’s definitely a rivalry and there’s a lot that goes with that. It’s the team that knocked you out of the playoffs last year, it’s the top-ranked team in the region, you’re the underdog and you want to take a shot at them.”

Dripping Springs actually entered the season ranked third in the region and ninth in the state, while Lake Travis was stuck at seventh in the region – one of the lowest preseason rankings the Texas Association of Soccer Coaches has ever given the Lady Cavs while Gamble has been at the helm.

Still, with a relatively unchallenging district schedule, the Lady Cavs run through most of their practices during the season with the idea that they’re going to have to play their best, most disciplined game against a team like Dripping Springs or Boerne Champion.

“That’s what we work for every day in practice – to have a shot at the best,” Gamble said. “That’s what we’ve got, and the fact that it’s Dripping Springs only makes it more intense, I suppose.”

Both the location and date were won on coin flips by Dripping Springs, so the game will be played at House Park tonight at 7 p.m. The Lady Tigers originally wanted Westlake, but the field wasn’t available.

The Lady Tigers beat McCallum 3-1 on Monday, so they’ll have an extra day of rest when the two teams take the field. The rest is a minor concern for Gamble, but his team’s preparation and readiness is not.

“We’re definitely ready, this is what we’ve been waiting for all season,” he said. “The Hays game was a tough one, but not as tough as the game we played last year before Dripping Springs, so hopefully we’re a little more rested than we were then.”

Lake Travis has advanced thanks to the win over Hays and an 8-0 drubbing of Travis last Thursday.

Dripping Springs had a first round bye, and then beat McCallum. The tight score line didn’t tell Gamble much about Dripping Springs, though.

“I think they probably have the same strategy that I have – it’s such a hard road, that when you get up a few goals, you start resting people,” he said.

Lake Travis should be at full strength tonight for the grudge match, making it a clash that will likely come down to the wire.

Boys prep for Hays

It was a stark contrast in play, to be sure.

Lake Travis (14-5-4) opened the playoffs short three starters and narrowly edged out Lanier 4-3 in the bi-district championship last Thursday. The Cavaliers then turned around at full strength on Monday and demolished San Marcos 6-1.

“Definitely noticed the difference,” Lake Travis head coach Ian Dillon laughed after the area championship win over the Rattlers. “We were definitely firing on all cylinders and everyone really clicked.”

Kramer Fyfe led the way against San Marcos with three goals, and Dylan Manos, Dillon Murrow and Stephen Pyle each scored, as well.

Due to recruiting and spring break trips, Lake Travis was missing a midfielder and two central defenders in the win over Lanier, and it took everything the remaining Cavs had to fend off the Vikings.

Having survived, the full Lake Travis squad got to work preparing for the second round the next day and Saturday.

“We had a really good practice on Saturday where we worked on some things that set us up for the teams we’re going to be playing,” Dillon said. “The guys took it seriously, knew they had to do it and tonight they were coming off the field pumped up to tell me that it was working.”

That may have been the understatement of the night, as Lake Travis jumped out to a 2-0 lead within the first four minutes of the game.

“We knew that they were a great team and they had two stud midfielders, so we came out with a game plan to play around them,” Lake Travis forward Kramer Fyfe said. “We got it going right off the bat and that set the tone for the whole game. We couldn’t stop scoring after that.”

From top to bottom, it was clear to the Cavs that San Marcos was a much better team than Lanier, so to see such different results was staggering.

“I think this was our best game of the season, just because of the ball movement,” Fyfe said. “Everything was flowing well and we were passing on one touch or two touches.”

It also speaks to how much more dynamic the team can be when it has Pyle steering the ship at midfield. Pyle was one of the players who missed the Lanier game, getting stuck in Dallas thanks to flight troubles.

Now, the Cavs will take their improved form into the regional quarterfinal for the second year in a row. Last year, Lake Travis fell to Alamo Heights in the same round, in what was the deepest playoff run in program history.

The Cavs will play Hays in the regional quarterfinal, and made it clear that they’d have preferred LBJ. But not necessarily because they think Hays is better.

“I’d rather play LBJ because Hays fouls a lot,” Dillon said. “They’re not physical, they’re a dirty team, you can quote me on that. We played them once in the preseason and every coach I talk to tells me the same thing. That’s what they do. So I’d rather play a team that I know isn’t dirty, but we’ll play whoever. If they play dirty, we’ll just try to beat them the way we beat San Marcos tonight.”

Trying to play that way is the best option anyway.

“I think if we play any night the way we played tonight, we’re going to be all right,” Dillon said. “We’ll definitely work on solidifying and remembering how we did everything tonight in the next couple of days.”

The Cavalier players share that confidence.

“I think we’ll be fine,” Fyfe said. “This was a really physical game, too. We know what kind of team Hays has and we’ll bring it to them.”

The showdown with Hays will be at Dripping Springs High School on Friday night at 7 p.m.