Lake Travis' dominance over San Antonio teams in playoffs ends at 19 games with loss

NEW BRAUNFELS — After addressing his team for a final time following a 34-17 loss to San Antonio Brennan, Lake Travis coach Hank Carter sought out each of his seniors and gave them a final, heartfelt hug.

“Our kids are awesome,” Carter said. “That’s why it’s so hard to watch these seniors play their last football game here. We just didn’t play quite as good tonight. Brennan had a lot to do with that.”

Ashton Dubose rushed for four touchdowns and delivered a gut-punching 24-yard touchdown pass to his twin brother Aaron to give Brennan a 27-17 lead with 5:48 left in the game. Aaron Dubose’s diving catch in the back of the end zone came on fourth-and-12.

Brennan’s win ends nearly two decades of playoff dominance by Lake Travis over San Antonio teams. The Cavaliers had won 19 consecutive playoff games against San Antonio area teams dating back to a 2004 loss to Alamo Heights.

For their reward, the Bears advance to play Westlake next Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Alamodome.

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Ashton Dubose completed 16 of 25 passes for 250 yards and added 71 yards rushing on 11 carries to help Brennan (12-1) avenge one of those 19 Lake Travis wins over San Antonio teams. Lake Travis knocked Brennan out of the playoffs last year.

“We just weren’t sharp enough tonight, period,” Carter said. “Brennan is a good team and they were sharper than we were tonight, certainly more explosive. We had some opportunities, and we didn’t take advantage of them.”

As it has all season, Lake Travis (7-5) relied on its ground game to stay close. The Cavaliers rushed for 315 yards on the night — led by Nico Hamilton’s 158 yards on 23 carries and Kadyn Leon’s 91 yards on 16 carries — but struggled to make plays when they needed to.

“We ran the ball well a lot tonight,” Carter said. “But we had some miscues and Brennan made some plays. We didn’t make enough plays offensively and you don’t make enough plays defensively against a really good team, you’re done.”

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Trailing 6-0, Lake Travis drove to the Brennan 28-yard line before a fumbled snap forced a punt. Early in the third quarter, Lake Travis drove to the Brennan 41 before Michael Flores stopped the Cavaliers by sacking Leon to force a punt. And trailing 20-17, a personal foul erased most of a 26-yard run by Leon, who lost a fumble two plays later.

Midway through the season, Lake Travis didn’t look like it would have an opportunity to play four rounds into the playoffs. The Cavaliers started the season 0-2 and a 38-31 loss to Dripping Springs left the Cavaliers 4-4 and looking for momentum. Carter said the team rallied together and created some before coming up short against Brennan.

“They came together and got focused and dedicated themselves to trying to be the best football team we could be, and we were playing well,” Carter said. “I’m proud of our kids. This was a tough season. The kids rose to the occasion down the stretch, but we just didn’t have enough tonight.”

The Cavaliers’ five losses — their most in a season since 2003 — came to teams with a combined record of 57-5.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: San Antonio Brennan defeats Lake Travis in football playoffs