The Cotton Bowl was the perfect place to cure any summer doldrums on Friday night, but the Lake Travis 7on7 team still walked away angry.

Surrounded by flashy logos, pretty women and around 1,000 fans at the Red Bull Game Breakers championship tournament, the Cavaliers walked into the storied football stadium as a favorite to take home the inaugural title.

It wasn’t to be, though, as Cy-Fair mounted a late comeback to snatch victory away from Lake Travis in a 21-20 thriller that propelled the Bobcats to the championship final, where they were promptly dismissed 31-14 by Louisiana’s St. Augustine.

As one might expect, the winningest football program in the state the last three years didn’t handle losing very well.

Upset with themselves and a series of controversial calls, the Cavaliers were appreciative of the opportunity, but anxious to hit the road.

“We came out and felt like we played a pretty good game,” Lake Travis quarterback Michael Brewer said. “Unfortunately, we had two calls against us at the end of the game that should have gone against us, but that’s the way football games go sometimes. We can’t put the ball in the refs’ hands, but we felt like if we had a few calls, it would have been a different outcome. It’s still not a good excuse, but stuff like that happens. We just have to build off of it.”

Lake Travis won one of the most anticipated games of the day when it opened with a 27-26 win over West Mesquite. The battle pitted Texas Tech commit Brewer against TCU commit and West Mesquite quarterback Treyvone Boykin and their respective teams against each other, and Lake Travis took an early lead and held off a late push. It was a strong showing to open the tournament, but it was somewhat overshadowed about two hours later.

“It sucks to lose,” Lake Travis receiver Conner Floyd said. “It helps to have the bad taste in your mouth, I think, because we’ve been fortunate enough to win so much. You never want to lose, everyone here obviously hates and it’s a good reminder that it’s not something we want to do, ever.”

The miscues in the second half of the Cy-Fair game were an abnormality in what is normally a game the Cavaliers methodically cruise through.

“We weren’t really on our A-game on the offensive side,” Floyd said. “We started off pretty quick but I think we thought we had it in the bag. We decelerated, the defense kept playing hard, but give credit to Cy-Fair, those guys were quick and they made some plays.”

The experience wasn’t a total loss, as the team enjoyed the chance to play on some of the most sacred football ground you can find in the state of Texas.

“It was definitely a cool experience to play here,” Brewer said. “It’s such a big venue, tons of people know about it and have been here and it’s got tons of history. To be able to play on the same field as some of the game’s greatest players was a tremendous honor and a really cool feeling.”

Regardless of the outcome, it was still a special day for the Brewer family.

“It’s like a dream come true for me to get to watch [Michael] come out here and play,” Lake Travis coach Robert Brewer told reporters before the event. Brewer won the Cotton Bowl in 1982 over Alabama as the quarterback for the University of Texas.

“The Cotton Bowl is such a great place, a historic place,” he said. “It obviously is a very special place for our family history, as well. Not only did I play here, but Michael’s granddad, my father, won a state high school championship on this field too.”

While the younger Brewer and his teammates took the loss hard, the regional tournament still isn’t the biggest prize they’re gunning for this summer. The biggest prize is the state 7on7 championship, which will be held July 9-10 in College Station, and it’s a title that’s eluded the most successful fall program in the state in the last three years. The experience in Dallas will only serve the Cavaliers going forward, according to Floyd.

“I was really pumped up to start the tournament. It was cool to be here and go against these teams in this kind of event with something on the line,” he said. “But now it’s time to just focus on state and prepare for that weekend.”

Lake Travis has finished in the quarterfinals twice at the state 7on7 tournament, and the team hopes to at least duplicate that accomplishment before going for the grand prize.

State 7on7 tournament

Held at Texas A&M Intramural Fields and Kyle Field, College Station.

Friday, July 9

• Registration is from 10:30 a.m. to Noon.
• Pool play begins at 1 p.m.
• Four teams in each pool.
• All teams will play three games on Friday.
• If you start pool play at 1 p.m., your next two games are at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
• If you start at 2 p.m. your next two games are at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
• The top two teams from each pool will advance to a Championship round Saturday morning while the remaining two teams from each pool will advance to a Consolation championship round beginning Saturday morning.
• All teams will play at least one game on Saturday morning.

Saturday, July 10

• Consolation and Championship pairings and sites will be available Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. at the registration tent.
• Consolation rounds begin at 8 a.m.
• Championship rounds begin at 9 a.m.
• Consolation Championship Game will be played at 4 p.m. at Kyle Field.
• Championship Game will be played at Kyle Field at 5 p.m.
• Lake Travis’ highest finish in state tournament history is quarterfinals.