The varsity football team took on the College Station Cougars Saturday afternoon at Cougar Stadium. It was a back-and-forth game throughout, but Westlake prevailed, winning 35-28.

“I learned we have a pretty tough team,” head coach Todd Dodge said. “To play this many games in this kind of heat and humidity and to win against a tremendous football team makes me really proud.”

The game began slowly, with neither team being able to put up points until running back senior Nakia Watson broke the tie with 4:18 remaining in the first quarter.

“Scoring first always matters,” Dodge said. “If you break it down, we won by one touchdown, and we scored first. It’s a huge deal in a game like that.”

College Station leveled the score early into the second quarter with a 96-yard run by senior quarterback Marquez Perez. After possession flipped sides a few times without a score, the Cougars led a drive far into Westlake territory, only to be picked off by defensive lineman junior David Neil.

“[Getting the interception] felt great,” David said. “Watching the film, I was thinking the entire week ‘If I could get an interception, that’d make my day.’ I write down my goals for the game every week, and that was my number one. Getting it was a dream come true.”

Westlake took the lead for the second time with a good drive off of a missed field goal by junior Alan Guerrieri. Taylor Anderson delivered a 34-yard pass to receiver senior Jacob Ramos to give the Chaps a 14-7 lead going into halftime.

“Coach told us we were playing how he wanted us to play,” David said. “There were little things that we could do better, but I feel like we fixed that going into the second half, especially in the fourth quarter because that’s when the game [got tight].”

Soon after the break, College Station got back in the game with a 30-yard pass right down the middle of the field delivered by quarterback junior Blake Bayliss to tie the game up at 14-14. Blake was forced to come into the game in the first half after Marquez went down with cramps in his entire body.

The fourth quarter was a contrast to a mostly defensive game up until that point. With the Chaps’ first play of the quarter, Nakia broke into the open field for a 78-yard touchdown. Almost immediately afterward, defensive back senior Connor Kelley intercepted a pass and took it 11 yards to the house. This was followed by a methodical drive by the Cougars that resulted in a touchdown. A 72-yard touchdown run by Nakia, his third touchdown of the game, made it 35-21, followed by a 86-yard Cougar’s touchdown pass on the first play of their drive.

With 7:32 left in the game, the score was 35-28. The Cougars had one last drive to try and tie the game, but were stopped on fourth down by the Westlake defense.

Westlake was scheduled to play at Katy’s new stadium Friday night in a much anticipated rematch of their game at Westlake last year, one that the Chaps won. Due to flooding from Hurricane Harvey, Katy was unable to play the match and the Chaps were forced to reschedule at the last minute.

College Station also lacked an opponent this weekend after their game against another Houston school was cancelled, which resulted in this game being played on a Saturday afternoon.  

“I don’t think [the schedule change] affected us too much,” Dodge said. “We are blessed that we even got to play. Schools in the Houston area didn’t get to.”