Lake Travis head coach Hank Carter compared kicker Cameron Dicker missing a field goal to Steph Curry missing a three pointer, saying, “When he does, nobody bats an eye. You know the next one is going in.” After missing a field goal with three minutes to go, Dicker was able to kick the game winner with three seconds left to knock off Cibolo Steele 34-31.
It was a high-profile matchup of two perennial powerhouses and the drama and intensity was able to match last year’s overtime thriller. Steele arrived on the Lake Travis turf with a vendetta, hoping to redeem themselves from last seasons painfully close 59-56 loss.
Lake Travis quarterback Matthew Baldwin completed a touchdown pass to Kyle Wakefield, followed by a successful kick for an extra point by Cameron Dicker to make it 10-0 with four minutes to go in the first. After giving up another Lake Travis touchdown, Cibolo Steele running back, Brendan Brady, retaliated with a 57 yard run, plowing through a Cavalier defense and putting a much needed touchdown on the scoreboard to make it 17-7.
The Steele defense was slow to start, but ramped up towards the end of the first half – managing to keep the Cavs out of the end zone for several series. Cibolo’s Jonathan Felix kicked a 45-yard field goal that ended the first half swinging the momentum in the Knight’s favor.
Cibolo Steele Head Coach David Saenz, said that going into the game, he expected to see “discipline” and “a well-coached football team,” fully anticipating a “hostile environment” but “excited about the opportunity to have a force.”
Knights quarterback Onyx Smith acknowledged the challenge of the game ahead but said that Cibolo was prepared “to come back” and “fight til the end.”
The Knights carried that momentum into the second half, stopping the Cavs on the first drive. They then followed that up with a score of their own, tying the game 17-17. The back-and-forth shootout continued, setting up another nail-biting fourth quarter like last year’s instant classic.
And after missing an earlier kick, Dicker booted it through the uprights to seal the game for Lake Travis.
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- Photo via Haley Whitt, TexasHSFootball.com
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I think he meant to compare it to Curry missing a free throw instead of a 3 pointer…because Curry misses over half of his three pointers, but very few free throws.