The varsity football team was defeated by Cypress Ranch 21-25 on Friday night. This was the Chaps’ second game of the season as well as their home opener. Westlake looked like a very dominant team in the first half on both sides of the ball, making the lead 14-3 going into halftime. In the second half, they conceded 22 points and failed to secure the victory.

“I hope it is [a wakeup call,]”  head coach Todd Dodge said. “And that’s what I told the team, we’ll find out if it really bothers you when we step on the field on Monday, because to be honest with you we didn’t have a great Monday practice last week. There’s a correlation between less than really good practices and getting your tail beat in the fourth quarter. It’s disappointing, and it’s my job and our coaching staff’s job, obviously, to point those things out.”   

Westlake jumped right into the game, scoring after a 50-yard drive thanks to a 2-yard run up the middle from quarterback senior Taylor Anderson. Kicker senior Gabriel Lozano nailed the extra point to put the Chaps up 7-0 with 6:33 to play in the first. Soon into the second quarter, senior running back Tripp Graham took it to the house off of a 31-yard run up the middle, making the score 14-0. The first half ended with a score of 14-3.

“We knew that [Cy-Ranch] was a playoff caliber team year in and year out,” Dodge said. “We knew that they beat a really good Cinco Ranch team last week, we knew everything we needed to know about them. As coaches we always try and make sure our kids are as educated as possible on the people that we play, but there’s no excuse [for that] lack of production in the fourth quarter.”

Westlake received the ball in the second half on their own 30-yard line but failed to drive and were forced to punt the ball. After a good defensive stop, the Chaps got the ball back on their own 8-yard line. They then drove to the house, scoring off of a 19-yard pass to wide receiver junior Mason Mangum, making the score 21-3 with 3:27 left in the third quarter.

“There were some really good things that happened for about three quarters,” Dodge said, “and then we just kind of bellied up in the fourth quarter and that’s just disappointing.”

On the Chaps’ first drive of the fourth quarter, they gave up a safety from a bad snap over Gabriel and past the end line making the score 21-5. This began a quarter in which Westlake didn’t record a single first down, and Cy-Ranch running back junior Elias Pino scored two touchdowns as part of a late-game 20-point comeback by the Mustangs.

“We lost a game, and I just want to make sure that this loss doesn’t lead to other losses because somebody goes in the tank,” Dodge said. “We’ve got to be mature, we’ve got to be mentally tough right now, and so we’ll start working on that tomorrow. We’ve got ten [games on the schedule,] we had two non-district games, we start district play next Thursday night, and everything we want to get done in this season is all still ahead of us. When you play good people like Belton and Cy-Ranch, you have a chance to get beat, because they’re good teams.”