High school football: Cedar Valley’s defense steps up in narrow win over Westlake

Tommy Bailey
·2 min read

After giving up a total of 72 points through its first two games of the season, Cedar Valley held Westlake to just a single touchdown Friday and its offense did just enough to get a 13-7 win.

“It was a battle,” Cedar Valley head coach Weston Zabriskie said. “That was so fun and the crowds for both sides were just electric. This has been four years coming and we got exactly what we wanted. It was a battle and we’re lucky to come out on top.”

The Cedar Valley offense was able to muster two field goals by Brayden Jakins as well as a 20-yard touchdown run by Chevas Gregory late in the third quarter that helped push visitors to victory.

But the story of the night was the Cedar Valley defense, and in the middle of the fourth quarter, Chase Webb made the play of the evening.

Westlake found itself deep in opponent territory and looking to take the lead, Westlake’s quarterback chose to heave the ball towards the end zone, with hopes of it finding one of his teammates.

Instead, Webb was able to locate the ball in the end zone and reeled in the interception, effectively ending the little momentum Westlake had grabbed.

“That’s the best our defense has played all year,” Zabriskie said. “Hopefully this has inspired them and they can keep playing that way.

“Chase Webb had the big interception and even though he hasn’t played very much this year, we had to count on him tonight and he made some huge plays. Making that pick, that pretty much sealed it for us.”

Even though the season is still in its early stages, Zabriskie knows a win like this can go a long way and really help his team when the region games come around.

“Hopefully this win propels us into great things,” he said. “We know we got caught falling asleep in Week 1, but we have a great team. We still have a couple kids out with injuries that are coming back that will help us. Wins like this will really us in our region because we know it’s going to be a dogfight in our region. If we know how to win close games and control the football that will be a huge advantage for us.”

The lone points for Westlake came with six minutes left in the third quarter when quarterback Greg Snow found receiver Ezra Heiner for a 25-yard score.

Westlake fell to 1-2 on the season, while Cedar Valley improved to 2-1.