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 WACO - Longview played an even first quarter against Lake Travis in the Class 4A Division I state championship on Saturday. The second quarter all but decided the outcome. "The second quarter was the key," said Longview head coach John King. Lake Travis scored 21 unanswered second-quarter points as special teams and field position sabotaged the Lobos in their 48-23 loss. The big quarter propelled the Cavaliers to their second straight state championship. Longview started the quarter with an impressive three-and-out defensive series, and LaMarcus Howard returned the punt 14 yards into Lake Travis territory. After that, the situation deteriorated for Longview. Quarterback Aaron Johnson lost several yards when he mishandled a shotgun snap, resulting in a fourth-and-18 punt. Lake Travis took them all down the field as quarterback Garrett Gilbert hit Austin Pollard for a 28-yard gain before connecting with Chris Aydam for 14 yards to the Lobo 19-yard line. Gilbert found Aydam for a 19-yard, screen-pass touchdown o the next play to give the Cavaliers a 14-7 lead four minutes into the second. The ensuing Longview possession resulted in a fourth-down fake punt attempt. Johnson looked for a receiver, tucked and ran to his left and was shut down for only a yard, giving Lake Travis the ball on its own 44 with great field position. "It was supposed to be a pass," King said. "They had it covered and Aaron was trying to run with it, make something happening." Lake Travis again moved quickly, covering a third-and-inches before Andy Erickson's 11-yard touchdown run that pushed the Cavs ahead 21-7 with 2:56 remaining in the half. If that wasn't troubling enough, the two following possession put Longview behind the 8-ball. Longview couldn't produce any yards, meaning it had to punt back to a high-powered Lake Travis offense with time to spare before halftime. The result as disastrous. "(Punting on that fourth down) was one thing I told them I didn't want to do. With two minutes to go in the half, I said, 'We're going to run the clock out and try to score,'" King said. "We had to punt the ball back to them and got no yards on the punt, and that let the wind out of us." Johnson's punt netted two yards, giving Lake Travis another short field as the Cavaliers continued to take advantage of outstanding field position. Gilbert showed off his running ability on first-and-10 gaining 17 to the Lobo 9. Two plays later, lake Travis lined up offensive lineman Paden Kelley and Tyler Walsh in a two-man, jumbo-fullback formation. Gilbert followed for an easy two-yard score that proved to be the game winner. The touchdown gave Lake Travis a 28-7 lead with less than a minute remaining in the first half. If losing running back Tyler McCray in the first quarter wasn't enough, receiver Carey Fortson left the game on Longview's final first-half possession with an injury to make the second quarter snowball larger. Neither player returned. Lake Travis received the ball to open the second half, compounding the problems. "We'd hope to come out and hold them to start the second half with a 28-7 deficit, maybe punch one in and play football," King said. Lake Travis did what King dreaded, opening the second half with another score to put the game out of reach, 34-7. "They didn't make many mistakes today. When they did, the ball just seemed to bounce right back to them - fumbled snaps and errant snaps," King said. "That's kind of what hurt us early on. We had negative plays. Either pitch the ball behind the runner or fumble a snap or have a bad snap. It came back and hit us in the butt today." |