The varsity football team defeated the Pflugerville Panthers in the Chaps’ third win of the season, 52-3. Westlake was ahead for the entirety of the game, putting up 7 touchdowns in their victory. Once again, running back senior Nakia Watson led the way with 4 rushing touchdowns and a total of 172 yards.

“[Having a big game] means a lot to me, and I couldn’t have done it without the offensive line,” Nakia said. “I just keep going and I’m always thinking about getting a touchdown every time I get the ball.”

Westlake jumped out to an early lead and didn’t look back after Nakia drove in an 11-yard run for the first score of the game. Pflugerville scored their only points off of a 41-yard field goal that split the uprights. Afterward, Watson once again scored on a 1-yard touchdown run, followed by a fumble recovery on the kickoff and another 1-yard touchdown run from Nakia. Kicker junior Gabriel Lozano nailed a 34-yard field goal and Watson secured his fourth touchdown of the game on a 50-yard run, and the first half ended 31-3.

The second half was most of the same, with the Chaps offense tacking on two more rushing touchdowns, the first of which was a scramble by quarterback junior Taylor Anderson.

“The one thing that you don’t want to do is come out of the second half and play less than your best,” Dodge said. “[We had] three goals at halftime, and [we managed] to achieve all three of them. I was real proud of our team the way they came out focused in the second half.”

Later in the game, Anderson threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to receiver junior Penny Baker to make it 45-3. A one-yard touchdown run by running back senior Devan Johnson sealed the final score of 52-3. Even in a one-sided game, Dodge wanted his players to stay focused.

“Our players are told to play their tails off,” Dodge said. “[They shouldn’t] pay attention to the score one way or the other. We played tremendously physical, as we have all year, and we have to continue to do that.”

Many teams choose to rest their players when they are up big, and Dodge stuck to that precedent, resting most of the starters in the second half. This meant a lot of the team’s depth players were able to make a case for why they should get more minutes.

“When our second- and third-string guys came in, they executed the base offense and the base defense well,” Dodge said. “I’m very proud of the whole roster.”