Lake Travis has been San Antonio Madison’s bugaboo for
some time now. That proved to be the case again on Friday when the
Cavaliers knocked the Mavericks out of the playoff for the fourth
straight year with a 49-21 victory at Rattler Stadium in San Marcos, TX.
With star quarterback Hudson Card still on the shelf from the
foot injury he suffered against Westlake, Lake Travis leaned on junior
running back Weston Stephens, who paced the offense with 20 carries for
165 yards and three touchdowns. It was the fourth time in five games
he’s hit the century mark in rushing after doing it zero times before.
He also had five catches for 61 yards.
Junior quarterback Nate Yarnell was 19-of-25 for 239 yards with
two touchdowns and one interception. With 1:41 left in the half and
Lake Travis leading only 14-7, Yarnell engineered a perfect two-minute
drill. He completed five-of-six passes to march the Cavaliers 58 yards
on nine plays, the last a four-yard touchdown toss to senior Grayson
Sandlin (six receptions, 78 yards) with 15 seconds left on the clock.
Lake Travis’s defense had the Mavericks’ attack completely out of sorts until the fourth quarter. Madison scored on only one of its first nine possessions, and that scoring drive was aided by two 15-yard face-mask penalties and culminated with a strange touchdown pass on a broken play.
Maui Trevino makes a tackle in the the 3rd Quarter at Rattlers Stadium against the Madison Maverick’s in a decisive win for the Div I 6-A Area Playoff. Cavs will face Weslaco next week in San Antonio likely the Alamodome on Friday Nov 29th at 1pm.
With the score 35-7 late in the third quarter, senior
linebacker Maui Trevino intercepted a pass and returned it to Madison’s
12. Three plays later, Lake Travis gave one of their big guys some love
as senior guard Andrew Salem (6-foot-2, 270 pounds) rumbled four yards
for touchdown to effectively ice the game.
AUSTIN
— It’s common knowledge that Lake Travis spent the latter portion of
the season trying to work through an injury to starting quarterback
Hudson Card.
Thankfully for the Cavaliers, senior middle linebacker Maui Trevino is still there to command the other side of the ball.
Head
coach Hank Carter’s team kicked off the 2019 postseason by stifling
Smithson Valley 21-3 at home on Friday, Nov. 15 in Austin. In that game,
Lake Travis surrendered an early field goal to the Rangers but
absolutely clamped down on the visitors for the remaining three
quarters.
Trevino
was in the middle of the action all night and helped slow Smithson
Valley’s not-so-secret weapon — senior running back/wide receiver Greg
Eggleston, who came into the contest averaging 11.7 yards per touch.
The
Cavs limited the Rangers’ X-factor to just 15 yards on 12 carries,
while Trevino piled on 10 total tackles to bring his team-leading season
total to 91 prior to Lake Travis’ second-round matchup with San Antonio
Madison.
“Maui
is the leader of our defense,” Carter said. “He’s a three-year starter
and embodies everything you want from a middle linebacker. He’s smart,
tough, instinctive and is a great tackler. I’m proud of the player that
he’s become and he’s a huge part of our success this season.”
Of
course, there were still plenty of eyes fixed on Lake Travis junior
Nate Yarnell, who took over for Card during the week leading up to the
Del Valle game. Yarnell went 3-0 in the last three weeks of District
25-6A competition, but it was unknown if the playoffs would prove to be a
stumbling block.
However,
the 6-foot-6 junior stood tall when it counted and helped turn the tide
with a pair of touchdown drives in the second quarter. The first was
capped by a 34-yard strike to Grayson Sandlin, while the second was an
81-yard march that saw Yarnell cover the final few feet on a 1-yard run.
“Nate
did a lot of good things,” Carter said. “He made some big throws and
runs when we needed them. He’ll continue to improve as he gets more
games under his belt.”
The
offense was also given a boost by running back Weston Stephens, who
churned out 160 yards on 27 carries to help the Cavs keep the chains
moving.
Defensively,
Trevino received additional support from defensive back D.J. Johnson
and defensive end Trey Sofia. Johnson shadowed Eggleston all night,
while Sofia caused a key fumble to help preserve the Cavaliers’ 14-3
halftime edge.
All of those players will be instrumental as the postseason rolls on.
Lake
Travis faces a matchup with Madison in the second round and will look
to slow the Mavericks’ one-two punch of quarterback Michael Garza (1,801
total yards, 23 TDs) and running back Darien Gill (1,131 yards, 10
TDs).
Garrett Wilson’s three second-quarter touchdowns helped Lake Travis pull away from San Antonio Madison last year for a 56-35 win in the 2018 Class 6A Division I Area playoff game.
There’s also hope that Card could return at some point down the line if the Cavs can keep on advancing. His prognosis, which initially stated that his injury required season-ending surgery, was changed to a four- to six-week timetable days after the Westlake game. It’s not known if Card will be healthy enough to get back on the field before he makes the move to the University of Texas, but even if he’s unable to return in 2019, Trevino and the defense will be ready for whatever comes their way.
Lake Travis senior wide receiver Garrett Wilson is back and badder than ever. The prodigal Ohio State pledge had eight catches for 169 yards with three total touchdowns (two receiving, one rushing) in the Cavaliers’ dominating 56-35 area round playoff win against San Antonio Madison Friday at Cougar Stadium in New Braunfels.
Wilson missed four of the five last regular season games with a back injury and his absence had started to cast doubts on Lake Travis’s state title aspirations. But he returned in time for the postseason and has looked spectacular with 313 yards in two playoff games, which means the Cavaliers are as dangerous as ever as they chase down a seventh state championship.
“Garrett’s incredible. There’s probably not another athlete like him in the country so we’re certainly better with him and he’s getting more and more back into shape,” said Lake Travis coach Hank Carter.
Lake Travis scored touchdowns on each of its first five possessions to build a 35-14 halftime advantage. The first score came on the Cavs’ first offensive snap. After starting with the ball at Madison’s 28-yard line following a shanked punt off a three-and-out, the Cavaliers motioned Wilson out of the backfield into a diamond quad formation of receivers to the left, which took the Mavericks’ attention away from the right side and allowed junior quarterback Hudson Card to rumble that way for a long touchdown run.
The Cavs second touchdown came off another short field thanks to a shanked punt following a three-and-out. Starting from the Mavericks’ 40, Lake Travis needed nine plays before finding pay dirt on a five-yard touchdown pass from Card to sophomore running back Weston Stephens. Card was wheeling and dealing all day, and finished 21-of-27 for 210 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions while adding 57 yards and a score on the ground. Stephens led all rushers with 82 yards and a score on six carries as Lake Travis hit the 200-yard mark both on the ground and through the air.
“We started out fast and that was a goal,” Wilson said. “Once we start out fast, it’s really just on us from there. (Card) didn’t miss a lot of throws. We made some good runs. It was a really balanced attack, which made it easy.”
Wilson scored all three of his touchdowns in the second quarter. Wilson had been known for using his versatile athleticism to affect the game in a number of ways. He showed that off when he took a toss out of the backfield for a five-yard touchdown on the opening play of the second period. He also got an easy 39-yard touchdown catch on a trick play when the defense bit on a double pass and hauled in a 14-yard score and an inside-breaking route.
His best catch, however, came in the third quarter when he went over the top of his defender on a deep pass down the right sideline for a 35-yard gain to the two that set up a one-yard touchdown plunge by senior running back Sean Brown-Nixon to make it 56-14.
“Once I see the ball – ‘it’s mine’ – that’s what’s going through my head,” Wilson said of his acrobatics catch in the third. “I see it go up there I got to get it.”
The 35 points given up by Lake Travis is a bit deceiving as three of the five touchdowns came with the outcome well in hand and some of the defensive starters standing on the sideline. Lake Travis’s pass rush was harassing Madison senior quarterback Dante Haeggins much of the day. Haeggans was taken down for three sacks and rushed out of the pocket a number of times. While the Cavs didn’t get a takeaway until the final seconds of the game, they did force seven three-and-outs.
