Westlake staves off Lake Travis, advances to Texas high school football state semifinals
PFLUGERVILLE, TEXAS - Westlake's recipe for postseason success is simple: Prepare for six days and play how you prepare.
That plan seemed crystal clear in its regional final matchup on Saturday afternoon against district rival Lake Travis, as the Chapparals battled tooth-and-nail to a 21-14 victory to sett up a rematch of its 2022 state semifinal loss next week against North Shore.
"It feels so good, it was a hard week of preparation," said 2025 linebacker Elliot Schaper. "They are a good team and so are we, we both showed out and we came out on top."
Both the Chaps and the Cavaliers feature great defenses and both were on display.
"This game took a week of work, it was six days of grind," said Chaps head coach Tony Salazar. "A lot of preparation went into this one and to get the result we want, I could not be more happy."
Earlier this season, Westlake knocked off Lake Travis 20-14 in district play, which was its only single-digit victory for the Chaps all season.
Entering Saturday, the Cavaliers defense had already beaten previously undefeated Austin Vandegrift and its prolific offense, 13-10, in the bi-district round.
However, the Chaps' defense stood tall, forcing three timely turnovers, which came at times when the Cavaliers offense was moving the ball down field and threatening to score. For the game, the Chaps held the Cavaliers to just 295 total yards of offense.
"The coaches put us in the right spots, and I made the plays today," Schaper said as he had two sacks and a late interception in the fourth quarter to clinch the victory.
Senior cornerback Denim Collins added another second half interception to halt another Cavalier drive.
"As long as we keep them off the scoreboard, we feel pretty good about being able to get the win," Salazar said about his team's defensive mentality. "We want to keep the other team at 14 points or less and if we can do that we feel confident enough in our offense to score more than that."
Despite the slow start offensively, Schaper said the defensive mindset was to stop the run and hold the Cavaliers to 14 points or less.
Westlake's final drive of the first half, the offense sustained a drive to get into the endzone. Sophomore quarterback Rees Wise connected with senior Cal Livengood on a 16-yard pitch-and-catch to put the Chaps ahead at the break.
"As an offense we did not play to our standards, but we will fix that going forward," Wise said. "We are playmakers and we just move the ball.
With a 7-0 lead to start the second half, each defense came out of the locker rooms and continued to shut down the opposing offenses.
"That is why it is a football team," Salazar said about the slow start offensively. "Some days the defense has to hold it down until the offense is able to create some things, and some days it is the opposite with the offense scoring points and making the defense's job easier."
Finally, Wise found his senior wide receiver Heath McRee for a 48-yard shot play, setting his Chaps' offense up inside redzone. Two plays later, senior running back Jack Kayser sprinted 12 yards to put Westlake up two scores.
In the fourth quarter, Cavaliers junior quarterback Chaston Ditta threw a ball into single coverage down the left sideline to find his top target — senior wideout Kadyn Leon — for a 49 yard touchdown to pull within a touchdown.
Westlake answered the Lake Travis touchdown with a mix of runs between Wise and Kayser before the senior workhorse back punched it in the endzone for a 21-7 lead.
The Chaps sophomore gunslinger finished the day with 228 total yards with one touchdown, while Kayser grinded out 79 rushing yards and two scores.
For one last ditch effort, the Cavaliers got into the end zone with 30 seconds remaining when Ditta tossed his second touchdown pass to junior Josiah Thomas to cap the scoring on the afternoon.
Salazar said the Chaps are ready to get another shot at Houston powerhouse North Shore after losing a year ago to the nationally ranked squad in the 2022 state semifinals.
"It is going to take the same thing it took this week; six days of hard work and focus," Salazar said. "It will take a lot of discipline and determination from our kids to take of the school work, watch the game film, and to show up with their minds right. Then, come back on Saturday and lay it out on the line."
-- Ryan Childers | @sblivetx
Lead photo by Paul Brick.
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