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Austin Lake Travis returns to Title game with win over Friendswood

COLLEGE STATION - The Austin Lake Travis Cavaliers (15-0) extended their two-year W/L record to 30-1 by soundly defeating the Friendswood Mustangs (11-2) by a score of 56-22 Saturday at Kyle Field. Despite the blowout, the game wasn't even as close as the score makes it appear. The Cavs accounted for 556 yards of offense with Gatorade National Football Player of the Year, Garrett Gilbert tallying 384 of those, while notching three rushing touchdowns as well as three through the air.

The game started out with Friendswood getting the ball first. They put together one of their best drives of the night in moving the pigskin deep into Lake Travis territory, but the drive stalled because of overthrown and dropped passes. Lake Travis responded with a 12 play, 87 yard drive in just 3 minutes and 16 seconds. Chris Aydam capped the drive by taking a Garrett Gilbert pass in for a 6 yard score.

After a quick three-and-out by the Mustangs, Lake Travis again wasted no time in turning the possession into points 5 plays and 46 yards later. Another Gilbert pass - this time to Cade McCrary for 16 yards - put the Cavs up 14-0.

The second quarter began differently as Friendswood finally had the strong wind at their back and wasted no time in using it to their advantage. Just 9 seconds into the second stanza, Jacob Karam found Austin Fitzpatrick wide open going deep over the middle and he ran it 70 yards for the score. With the score at 14-7, it appeared that the Mustangs were poised to make it a game.

While it was clear that both quarterbacks were top notch and that both teams had excellent receivers, the real disparity between the two squads started to show as the Cavaliers line pushed the Mustangs d-line all over the field with ease. Garrett Gilbert known for his prowess throwing, looked like a running back as he piled up big play after big play on the ground. While he IS a great runner, he wasn't being touched for the first 8 yards or so of each play - the holes were just that big.

Halftime came with Gilbert being involved in three more scores - a 19 yard run, a 34 yard pass to Austin Pollard, and another 1 yard TD run. The Cavaliers went into the locker room up 35-7 and more than double the yardage of Friendswood (374 to 142.)

In the third, the Lake Travis domination continued as the Cavs put up two more scores. One, on Garrett Gilbert's 8 yard run, and another on a Chris Aydam 4 yard jaunt. Before the quarter came to an end, the Lake Travis fans saw something very familiar - Garrett Gilbert leaving the game with more than a quarter remaining.

In trash time (the fourth quarter) Friendswood did manage to put up two scores. Andrew Cole busted a 51 yarder with 10:18 to go in the game and backup quarterback, Peter Maetzold punched it across on a 1 yard run with 14 seconds remaining. The Cavaliers' second team put up one score when Andy Erickson carried it from 9 yards out in the middle of the quarter.

In the end, the rest of the state has finally started to take notice that Garrett Gilbert is not only the "real deal," but as Lone Star Gridiron's Chris Doelle pointed after Gilbert's debut game his sophomore year, "This is the best quarterback I have seen in 25 years of following Texas high school football - the BEST." (Sept 2, 2006)

Next up for Garrett Gilbert and the Cavaliers is a return to Waco for what they hope will be their second straight 4A state title. They will be facing a very tough Longview team which earned the spot via their victory over a surprising Denton Guyer team 41-30. Longview has been a 5A team for a long while, but dropped this season to 4A after the realignment and should provide Lake Travis with a very tough test.

STATISTICS
RUSHING (carries-yards, TDs)
Austin Lake Travis
Garrett Gilbert (14-131, 3)
Chris Aydam (10-90, 1)

Friendswood
Andrew Cole (7-71, 1)
Peter Maetzold (3-12, 1)

PASSING (att-comp-int, yds, TDs)
Austin Lake Travis
Garrett Gilbert (30-21-0, 253, 3)
Micheal Brewer (4-2-0, 29, 0)

Friendswood
Jacob Karam (37-17-2, 233, 1)
Peter Maetzold (1-1-0, 18, 0)

RECEIVING (no-Yds, TD)
Austin Lake Travis
Austin Pollard (10-146, 1)
Floyd Conner (4-68,0)
Chris Aydam (4-30, 1)
Cade McCrary (4-30,1)

Friendswood
Austin Fitzpatrick (7-144, 1)
Andrew Cole (6-51, 0)
Chris O'Bryan (2-27, 0)
Cody Bergeson (2-24, 0)

TACKLES (unassisted-assisted, total, sacks)
Austin Lake Travis
Quinton Crow (2-4, 6, 0)
Ian Lazarus (2-4, 6, 0)
Jon-michael Paul (2-4, 6, 0)
Michael Streuling (3-2, 5, 0)

Friendswood
Beau Barnes (5-7, 12, 0)
Broderick Sasser (5-5, 10, 0)
Hunter Mcafee (4-4, 8, 0)
Brant Liufau (1-6, 7 0)


A complete play-by-play LIVE blog of the game can be found here.

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