It was the worst possible start you can draw up. The Woodlands got the ball first, went three and out, then allowed the Cavaliers to drive down the field and score a touchdown on their opening drive. Then, that sequence repeated on each team’s second possessions. The Woodlands went three and out and Lake Travis drove down and scored another touchdown.
The dream season ended with a 41-13 loss to Lake Travis in front of 30,013 at AT&T Stadium in the 6A Division I state title game.
“They are a great football team, you gotta give them a lot of credit,” The Woodlands head coach Mark Schmid said after the game. “We got behind early and that took us out of our game plan to try and do some things and it just didn’t work well.”
The Woodlands (15-1) defense just didn’t have an answer for SMU commit Charlie Brewer and Maleek Barkley, who were the leaders of the Cavs offense that was averaging 52.8 points in the playoffs.
“It’s unfortunate that someone had to lose this game because nobody that plays in it is losers,” Schmid said. “When you lose this game though, you do walk off feeling different.”
Senior quarterback Eric Schmid wasn’t getting enough time in the pocket to go through his progressions, and when he left the pocket to try and scramble and make something happen, the Lake Travis defense was there ready to nullify that effort.
The Highlanders scored at the end of the first half when Schmid and Dylan Casey for a 30-yard strike that gave them a jolt going into the locker room at halftime. They forced a stop on the Cavs’ first possession of the second half but when they got back, they couldn’t get points on the board, which would have made it a ballgame again. The Lake Travis (15-1) defense was just way too much for the Highlanders on this night.
The Woodlands had a lot of adversity this season with the injury of Grant Milton, and they battled through that to make it to the title game for only the second time in school history.
“Its really hard to take right now don’t get me wrong,” Eric Schmid said. “We have a ton to be proud of and we’ll go down as one of the best teams in The Woodlands history.”
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