Lake Travis tops Westlake 32-21

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In the stadium where his older brother will play, Griffin Gilbert's big game carried Lake Travis to a 32-21 win over Westlake.

The last time Griffin Gilbert caught a pass on Joe Jamail Field, he was a freshman and his then-Lake Travis senior brother Garrett threw the strike to him in a garbage time 71-9 win over Killeen in the 2008 state playoffs.

It’s safe to say his second game at DKR-Texas Memorial stadium Saturday night was just as memorable. Gilbert caught 10 passes for 164 yards and a touchdown, taking home game MVP honors in a 32-21 win over Westlake to open the season.

“It’s nothing like that first game,” Gilbert said. “Coming out here and being a part of the team, doing everything I could to help us win.”

The Cavaliers needed him to do it because their No. 1 receiver, Conner Floyd, suffered a severe leg injury early in the second half. That means Gilbert will see a lot more balls thrown his way.

“Losing Conner was terrible,” Gilbert said. “I knew I needed to step up and make big plays. I needed to catch everything thrown my way. That’s always been my job and will always be my job, and Michael [Brewer] kept putting balls up where only I could catch them. He did a great job. “

Brewer finished the game with 21 completions on 40 attempts for 289 yards, a touchdown and an interception. A run-of-the-mill line for the Texas Tech commit and Lake Travis signal caller, but it came as part of a not-so-ordinary game for the Cavaliers.

Lake Travis fell behind 12-0 to start the game, and for a while, their 46-game winning streak looked to be in jeopardy to the 30,000 estimated fans in attendance.

Westlake did a thorough job of eating up the clock in the first half, and still finished the game with more possession time – 27:32 – than Lake Travis – 20:28. The steady assault, coming mostly on the ground thanks to quarterback Lewis Guilbeau – who finished the first half with 93 yards on 15 carries – kept the Cavaliers off the field. When the Lake Travis offense finally was on the field, receivers dropped nine passes, further stalling efforts in the first half.

Lake Travis began to turn the tide late in the first half when Westlake had second-and-goal at the Cavalier two-yard line and failed to score, turning to a 24-yard field goal to make it 15-3 with 1:03 left in the half.

Michael Pojman returned the ensuing kickoff to the Westlake 46-yard line, and four plays later, Brewer hit Gilbert for a 29-yard touchdown reception. A Stephen Pyle extra point closed the lead to 15-10.

Lake Travis appeared to be in trouble again when an opening second half drive went nowhere, and the Chaps responded with an eight-play drive that covered 86 yards and ended with a touchdown pass from Guilbeau to Brice Dolezal.

Down 21-10 with their backs to the wall, the Cavaliers responded with a 92-yard drive of their own, eventually scoring on five-yard run by Cameron Wrinkle set up by a 21-yard reception by Floyd. Floyd’s final contribution of the game came on the Wrinkle touchdown, when his leg was rolled up on by another player, causing the injury that resulted in him being carted off the field.

Inspired by his exit, Lake Travis succeeded on the following two-point conversion, a pass from Brewer to Gilbert.

“We were charged up at that point,” Lake Travis linebacker Austin Williams said. “[Westlake] had dropped a couple cheap shots on us, and we’d just lost Conner. We absolutely had to stop them.”

That’s exactly what Lake Travis did, forcing a three-and-out for Westlake. Lake Travis took over at its own 28-yard line and flew down the field, scoring in six plays on a five-yard run by Brewer. A kick later and Lake Travis led 25-21. The Cavaliers never looked back, stifling the Chaparral offense. The Cavalier offense didn’t exactly cruise from that point, either, but the defense finished the job when a Guilbeau pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage and Lake Travis defensive end Tyler Paulsen brought the ball down and sprinted 25 yards to the end zone to extend the lead to 32-21.

It’s the third time in five years that Lake Travis has beaten Westlake, all of which came in the last three meetings. The Cavaliers’ winning streak now stands at 47 games, with Westlake the last team to beat them.

Lake Travis takes on Hendrickson next Friday at Hawk Stadium in Pflugerville.

News and notes:

■ Lake Travis head coach Hank Carter won his first game in that capacity, and pointed to some jitters by everyone early on, thanks to the anticipation for the game and the crowd size once it started.
“I pretty much went in at halftime and looked at the kids said, ‘OK, are we good now? Have we calmed down now? Can we go play?’” Carter laughed. “And they responded that they were ready. We made a couple of adjustments and I really thought we’d start out on the right foot. But they stopped us when we were on offense and then we let them score on a big play, and I was thinking, ‘what in the world is going on?’ But still, defensively, we were getting better and we were starting to throw the ball a little bit. After that, we started playing the way we know how to play.”

■ Lake Travis operated for most of the game without properly working headsets.
“You can’t understate how important that is,” Carter said. “Not having communication during the game is a nightmare. I don’t know if Westlake had it, either. We even put on the UT headsets, and they weren’t working, either.”

■ Despite the slow start, Carter thinks the game as a whole showed that the Cavaliers are on a similar path to year’s past.
“It’s funny, I told the kids that there’s always a big improvement from the intersquad to the preseason scrimmage and then from the scrimmage to the first game,” Carter said. “But I think our kids made the biggest improvement from the first half to the second half of the game. Our motor, effort, execution and everything else improved and that impressed me because I know they were tired. It was a long, emotional and physical game. I was very proud of how we finished it up.”

■ Gilbert’s performance put him in line with some exclusive company. In Lake Travis season-opening games, receivers have always stood out. Andy Erickson caught seven passes for 164 yards and a touchdown in 2009’s 55-31 win over Westwood and Cade McCrary caught six passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns against Westwood in 2008. Both players went on to earn first-team or player of the year all-CenTex honors.

■ Thursday night the JV Black football team traveled to Westlake and won 18-0. The Cavs received the opening kickoff and marched the ball right down the field. Baker Mayfield hit Blake Harvey running wide open down the left sideline for the first Lake Travis touchdown of the year. The extra point was blocked. After a couple of nice defensive stands by both teams, Lake Travis was able to force a Westlake field goal. The snap was bad and the Cavs took over the ball. On the next defensive series safety Hunter Streuling forced a fumble on a nice hit on a Chap receiver. Vince Villagomez was there to recover the fumble and stop another Westlake drive. Mayfield quickly led the Cavs down the field with some nice runs by Eric Patterson and some nice catches by Zach Austin. Facing a third-and-15, Mayfield found Harvey again. Breaking one tackle, Harvey found the end zone again to increase the lead to 12-0. The two point conversion failed. The lead at halftime was 12-0. The lead stayed at 12 points because of a fierce Cavalier defense that allowed nothing except a few QB scrambles. Nice defensive plays by Streuling, Dean Young, and Greg Spinks kept the Chap offense flustered all day. Early in the fourth quarter, Mayfield connected with Dannon Cavil for a long gain down to the Westlake 15 yard line. On the next play Baker finished the drive with a fade in the end zone to Cavil. Head Coach Randall Edwards said, “I was very proud of the kids. We played great defense all night. Everyone loves a shutout and it’s nice to see the offense clicking and moving the ball up and down the field.” The defensive players of the game where Streuling and Connor Shannon. The offensive players of the game where Mayfield and Harvey. The JV Black will play at home tonight vs. Pflugerville Hendrickson. Game time is 15 minutes after the JV White game.

■ The JV white team traveled to Westlake and got off to a slow start. Troy Stevenson got things going in the right direction with a 41-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second half. Kevin Marcotte followed up with a perfectly executed onside kick. But the offense turned the ball over on the next play that halted any momentum swing that was taking shape for Lake Travis. Westlake won 24-6.

■ The Freshman Red team battled the Vandegrift Vipers in a 20-0 loss. The Cavaliers kept the game close until the third quarter when the field position battle wore down an over-worked defense.

■ The Freshman Black team soundly defeated the Westlake 9th grade A team by a score of 34-7. The Cavalier ground attack was led by Varshawn Nixon, Cameron Marsh and Luke Hutton. Quarterback Bear Fenimore had two passing touchdowns to receivers Tyler Payne and Grant Schneider. The Cavaliers travel to Hendrickson to take on the Hawks tonight.

■ The Lake Travis Freshman White team beat the Westlake Chaparrals 20-7. The game started with a long kickoff return by Alex Luster. Luster scored the first touchdown on the opening drive.  The defense held them to a three-and-out.  The special team units played well, with Reid Noak returning a punt giving the offense good field position. Luster then scored the second touchdown with Cort Wolleat converting the extra point. The defense played with great effort forcing four turnovers, two fumbles recoveries and two interceptions. Cory Sorenson and Michael Dahl each had fumble recoveries.  Austin Villanueva and Randy Cunningham each had interceptions. Luster scored his third touchdown of the day during the third quarter. Wolleat converted the PAT.