A day after Westlake edged Lake Travis in a Texas High School Football thriller, a couple of former Chap and Cavalier quarterbacks delivered a classic in the Red River Rivalry.
But unlike Friday, where the Cavaliers didn’t have enough to upstage their neighborhood rival, former Lake Travis quarterback and current Oklahoma senior Baker Mayfield made the plays to lead the Sooners past Texas 29-24 on Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Mayfield showed his usual knack for escaping pressure and making highlight worthy plays. He finished with 329 total yards (302 passing, 27 rushing) and competed 17-of-27 passes with two touchdowns. His second scoring toss, a 59-yard bomb down the right sideline to junior tight end Mark Andrews with 6:53 to go, put the Sooners up for good.
But it’s not as if Texas freshman quarterback Sam Ehlinger, a Westlake graduate, was shown up. Ehlinger totaled 384 yards (278 passing, 106 rushing) and scored a touchdown both through the air and on the ground. His eight-yard scoring scamper on a broken play with 8:01 to go gave Texas its first and only lead of the game, and momentarily gave Texas fans the feeling they were going to upset their hated rivals.
Oklahoma (5-1 overall, 2-1 in Big 12) jumped out to a 20-0 lead by going touchdown-field goal-touchdown on its first three drives and then adding a field goal with 4:32 left in the second quarter. Texas (3-3, 2-1) needed a while to get going but was jumpstarted by a 41-yard kickoff return by sophomore Kyle Porter to the OU 42. Porter took a screen pass 16 yards to the house to put Texas on the board a minute later.
Texas junior kicker Joshua Rowland hit a 34-yard field goal at the end of the half to cut it to 20-10, but Oklahoma junior kicker Austin Seibert opened the third quarter with a 36-yard kick that pushed the lead back to 13. Texas junior running back Chris Warren III capped a 13-play, 75-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run where he was pushed in by Ehlinger. That made it 23-17 and set up the late game dramatics.
Texas had more first downs (23-20) but Oklahoma had more yards (518-424). The only turnover came when John Booney leaped in front a Mayfield pass to the running back for an interception with 59 seconds left in the second quarter. That gave Texas enough time to drive 52 yards and get a field goal in right before the gun.
Oklahoma freshman running back Trey Sermon led the Sooners in rushing with 96 yards on 20 carries and senior wide receiver Jeff Badet caught Mayfield’s first touchdown pass, a 54-yard completion on Oklahoma’s fifth offensive play of the game. Andrews finished with four grabs for 104 yards to go with his game-winning score. Freshman CeeDee Lamb had three catches for 74 yards and sophomore Marquise Brown had four for 73.
No Texas running backs had more than seven yards rushing as Texas head coach Tom Herman and offensive coordinator Tim Beck seem more comfortable running the ball with Ehlinger, who finished with 22 carries. Ehlinger spread the ball out nicely by completing at least two passes to seven different receivers. Sophomore Lil’ Jordan Humphrey (four catches, 56 yards), Warren III (4, 55) and redshirt freshman Reggie Hemphill-Mapps (4, 42) led the way.
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