Despite a 2-0 district record, against rivals Judson and Akins High School, the Westlake High School JV-A Football team took a grueling defeat against the usually competitive, Lake Travis Cavaliers on Thursday September 23. As always the atmosphere was tense riding on years of rivalry between the Chaps and Cavaliers. On both sides, players, coaches, and fans alike had no shortage of competitive banter and anxiety waiting for the final score of the game. 

The minute the first quarter began, the Cavaliers kick off was returned by #44 who ran the ball 46 yards. 20 seconds into the quarter, #82 Chase Bowen, secured a touchdown for the Chaps, followed by a good kick by #99, Colin Michael securing the lead at 7:0 for the Chaps. While it seemed that the Chaps had the momentum between the second play touchdown and stopping the Cavaliers following kick off at the 3 yard line, the momentum quickly shifted to Lake Travis and would remain with them for the length of the game. 

Finally at 5:42 in the first quarter, the Cavalier’s quarterback ran a 70 yard touchdown revealing, for the first time all game, the speed he and his fellow offensive players would have for the rest of their time on the field. Despite the celebrations coming from Lake Travis’ side and an overall melancholic energy radiating off the Westlake sidelines and stands, the play was flagged making the touchdown no good.This not only prompted anger and booing from the Lake Travis fans, but also catalyzed a few angry remarks from Westlake’s JV-A Coach Jones.

Following the attempted 70 yard touchdown by the Cavaliers quarterback, Coach Jones stormed the field, addressing the ref as to find out “what the hell [was] going on.” Tensions continued to rise when he asked to get one of Lake Travis’ players “off the d*** field”. 

However, despite several flags and timeouts the Cavaliers finally managed to shut down Westlake’s quips by securing a touchdown with three minutes and 41 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Just three minutes later, the Cavaliers scored again, setting up a 12 to 7 lead against the Chaparrals. 

Unlike the first eventful 10 minutes of the game, the second quarter had little to no action. Neither team could seem to gain much yardage, or even momentum. Finally with three minutes and 36 seconds left in the first half, Lake Travis Ditta made it into the end zone. However, like most of the Cavaliers advancements in the first quarter, there was a flag and the ball was moved back to the 18 yard line. After a timeout called by the Chaps followed by a minute of booing from the Cavalier’s stands, Lake Travis went for a field goal and made it, thus taking the lead in the first half: 15 to 7. 

Not much happened in the first seven minutes of the third quarter. With about three minutes remaining in the quarter, the Chaps managed to make it to the ten yard line giving the fans some hope that the game might turn around for Westlake. Yet, the ten yard line would be the closest they got to the end zone for the rest of the game, as they made it to a fourth down with no additional points added to their score.Like the following two quarters the fourth quarter was dead. Neither team seemed excited about the last ten minutes, and—from the Chaps stands— it didn’t feel like there was much hope that the game would turn around in their favor. With five minutes and 51 seconds left in the game, the Cavalier’s upped the ante with a touchdown. Like every field goal kicked by the kicker in the previous quarters, the extra point was no good, leaving the score at 21 to 7 for the Cavaliers. The score would not change for the remainder of the game, giving the game, unfortunately, to the Lake Travis Cavaliers.