Through five starting quarterbacks, two head coaches and six years, the Westlake Chaparrals are 6-0 against their arch-rivals, the Lake Travis Cavaliers. They have beaten them four times in the regular season and knocked them out in the state quarterfinals twice.
“Anytime you get this level of experience, it makes you feel a little bit more comfortable about knowing your opponent, and the level of play they’re going to bring to the field,” head coach Tony Salazar said.
Westlake (6-1, 3-0 District 26-6A) will look to keep their winning streak alive tonight against the Cavs (7-0, 3-0 District 26-6A) at Chaparral Stadium. The game will likely decide who takes the district this year, with the Chaps having taken the last five titles.
Without senior offensive tackle Marlow Frederick and junior offensive tackles Luke Walker and Caleb Christen, the Chaps will have to continue their “next man up” mentality on the offensive line. Last week, senior Will Markey switched over from being the backup center to starting at offensive guard. Junior Jackson Cook moved from offensive guard to offensive tackle. The Chaparrals’ banged-up offensive line will have to contain two future DI Lake Travis edge rushers: TCU commit Carter Buck and Kentucky commit Ben Duncum.
“Every elite offensive line should have eight guys that they trust to go out there,” senior center William Twardowski said. “Unfortunately we’ve suffered a lot of injuries losing three of our tackles, but we trust the five guys we have going out to physically and handle their explosive d-line.”
The Chaps’ defense is coming off of a week where they allowed zero defensive points and turned the Bowie offense over twice, running away with a 30-7 win. The Bulldogs only touchdown was a pick-six. The win came without two defensive captains. Senior defensive lineman Maddox Flynt and senior linebacker Mason Lastor both missed the game due to injury.
“It was execution,” Salazar said. “It was guys knowing their assignment. There were a bunch of moving parts in that offense, and guys having to play a little different role based off of formation, shifts and motions.”
The defense is historically a strong suit for the Chaparrals, who did not allow more than 17 points in either of the two games against Lake Travis last year. In those games, they turned the Cavs over eight times, with six interceptions and two forced fumbles. The Chaps brought back a solid core of returning players from that team, and Salazar said there’s several players who played four games against LT over the last two years.
“Being on this end where your kids have had success against these guys in recent years is important,” Salazar said. “There’s a lot of familiarity with that.”
That familiarity stretches beyond the two teams meeting often in one of the most important rivalries in Texas high school football. The two schools only 10 miles apart also run similar schemes.
“Their defensive structure is eerily similar to our defense,” Twardowski said. “We play our defense every day in practice, so we feel confident going into this game.”
Despite the two teams’ knowledge of each other, Salazar and Lake Travis head coach Hank Carter often mix up formations, adding another layer of trickery to the rivalry.
“There’s some times that we feel like we’re going to know what’s coming,” Salazar said. “But there’s also times they do a good job of masking it, maybe shifting from a formation, or motioning from a formation to mask what the final product is going to be. We have to decipher it as a defense as things are moving.”
With Princeton commit Vann Hopping at running back and an experienced wide receiver core, the Cavalier offense poses a unique challenge to the Chaparral defense with their ability to mix up play calls and keep the secondary on their toes.
“It’s going to be a gap sound defense,” Salazar said. “We’ll be making sure defensive linemen maintain their gap control, and linebackers fit the open gaps. We have to be great tacklers, and we’re going to use safeties in the run game this week to tackle a good back like that. They have some RPO game that goes off of that run game that makes you stay balanced in your stance and in the formation.”
For the Chaps, it’s not only a rivalry game, but also their homecoming game. Additionally, former Chaparral quarterback Drew Brees will have his jersey retired in a pregame ceremony. With the circumstances, focus is imperative for a Westlake team that is often characterized as disciplined.
“There’s a lot of extra stuff that comes along with this game,” Twardowski said. “Our team stays with an emphasis on the game and not worried about distractions. Once the offense takes the field, that’s when all the nerves go away and that’s when we’re playing the game that we love.”
The Chaps will look to play focused football and continue their nearly six-year district unbeaten streak at 7 p.m. in the latest rendition of the ‘Battle of the Lakes’, one of the premier showcases of talent in Texas high school football.
