Lakeway – Lake Travis erased 44 minutes of frustration with 4 brilliant final minutes to top Arlington Martin 13-6 Friday night.

Kadyn Leon ran for the tying touchdown and then hit Seth Galbraith for the game-winner, all in the game’s waning moments, after the Cavaliers spent the first three and a half quarters watching their own penalties erase touchdowns that might have made things a bit more comfortable. Leon had touchdown runs called back in each of the first 3 quarters, including a 75-yard dash through the center of Martin’s defense.

“We were just beating ourselves up in the first few quarters but finally we got things under control and we were good,” Leon said. “It was a little bit frustrating. We had been driving the ball. We just needed to do a little extra in the red zone to capitalize.”

Over the first three quarters, Lake Travis (1-0) all but dominated play but trailed 6-0 thanks to a 51-yard touchdown pass from Martin’s Tristan Bittle to Brody Williams with 4:18 left in the third quarter. The Cavaliers saw 4 different drives stall inside Martin’s 30-yard line, mostly due to penalties – Lake Travis committed 9 for 105 yards in the game. They also missed two field goals and fumbled inside the Martin 10.

“We had a lot of mistakes, but in the end we came away with the win and that’s all that matters,” Nico Hamilton, who rushed for 168 yards, said. “There were a lot of points that we could have had on the board. That’s what we talked about at halftime. We ended up stopping making mistakes and we scored twice in the fourth quarter.”

Hamilton delivered the big play on the game-tying drive, breaking loose for a 48-yard run on third and six to set up a Leon’s 2-yard touchdown run with 3:09 left. Martin (0-1) blocked the extra point to keep the game tied.

“We knew something was going to bust open for us,” Leon said. “We’d been driving the ball but we couldn’t capitalize. We knew it was going to happen and it did with Nico’s long run.”

The Cavaliers got their biggest break on the ensuing kickoff. Easton Aird delivered a crushing tackle on Trantan Miles, knocking the ball out for teammate Josiah Estes to collect.

“I had a lot of faith and confidence in our offense and defense and I 100% thought we would come away with the win,” Estes said. “I saw guy coming and saw the ball fly out and knew that I had to get on it.”

“We fought tonight,” Lake Travis coach Hank Carter said. “I am very pleased with that. In the end, when we needed a drive and we needed a play, we did it.”

Two more Martin penalties – the Warriors drew 18 penalties in the game – got Lake Travis close with less than a minute left, and Leon threw a strike to Galbraith for the winning score with 43 seconds left.

“Coach (Tommy) Mangino brought me over and asked if I wanted to run it or throw it, and of course I said throw it,” Leon, who completed 14 of 20 passes for 181 yards, said. “We’ve been working on this play all week, and we got the look that we wanted.”

Part of a defense that held Martin to just 181 yards of offense, Estes said the defense kept its focus despite a busted coverage that resulted in Martin’s touchdown.

“All of our guys are very hard-headed, and we’re always focused on the next play,” Estes said.

“I’m really pleased with how our defense played tonight,” Carter said. “We didn’t play everything exactly right but we played fast.”