Lakeway – As their bitter rivals celebrated their 5th straight win in the Battle of the Lakes series, Lake Travis coach Hank Carter made a simple observation.

“We just had too many costly mistakes,” Carter said after Westlake topped Lake Travis 28-16. “You can’t turn the ball over 2 times close to the red area and then give them another one down by our end zone.”

Lake Travis suffered 4 turnovers. Quarterback Chaston Ditta threw his first interceptions of the season. Two in the first half – both made by Westlake defensive back George Jones - came as Lake Travis moved into scoring territory. The third was a momentum killer in the 3rd quarter. Trailing 14-10, Ditta marched the Cavaliers from deep in their own territory across midfield only to have Brandon Clark step in front of a receiver and go 50 yards the other way for a touchdown.

The 4th turnover was a second-quarter fumble that led to a 25-yard touchdown pass from Rees Wise to Cal Livengood.

“We were out of sync,” Carter said. “Credit to them. Some of that was on them, but we have to have better ball security and take care of the football.”

The turnovers – and Livengood’s 81-yard punt return touchdown in the 4th quarter – were the glaring difference in a game that saw Lake Travis outgain Westlake 367-180. Westlake won despite gaining just 38 yards of offense after halftime, 30 of which came on the final drive that ran out the clock.

Wise finished with 75 yards passing and 17 yards rushing on the night, but he came away with the biggest stat of them all – the win.

“Games are won with defense,” Wise said following a game in which he suffered a pair of turnovers himself – an interception by Michael Griffin that led to a Lake Travis field goal and a fumble that amounted to nothing thanks to Jones’ second interception. “We need to play better offensively but the defense worked hard all week in practice and played its heart out.”

Lake Travis battled back after each turnover but the mistakes – including 3 untimely penalties – made the task too much to overcome.

“We needed to be better tonight and we weren’t,” Carter said. “We’re going to learn from this, but it stings, obviously. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t get my guys to play better. We didn’t have our guys ready to play the game. That’s what bothers me right now.”

At 7-1 and 3-1 in District 26-6A, it’s back to work for the Cavaliers, who close the regular season with games against Akins and Austin High before a playoff opener against a team from District 25-6A.

“This was a great environment against a really good football team and we’re going to learn from it,” Carter said.