Round Rock – As he gathered his dejected team following a gut-wrenching 24-17 loss to Westlake in the 6A, Division I, Region IV championship game, Lake Travis coach Hank Carter gave his team a final message.

“This rips your heart out,” Carter told his team. “We had an amazing season…such an enjoyable season. When you sign up to play this game, this is a possibility. Tonight sucks, but that doesn’t take away from the great things you did.”

Lake Travis finished the season 12-2 with both losses coming against Westlake. The Chaps have now won 6 straight against the Cavaliers in the Battle of the Lakes rivalry.

Carter’s words came after Westlake’s defense came up with its fourth turnover of the night – George Jones intercepted Chaston Ditta’s pass after the Cavaliers had driven to the Westlake 23-yard line seeking a tying touchdown. The interception brought a sudden end to what half of the Kelly Reeves Stadium crowd was convinced would be a tying score.

Having spent their timeouts forcing Westlake to punt, the Cavs moved quickly and had the end zone in sight. With 45 seconds left at Westlake’s 23, Ditta received the snap and threw a pass into the left flat, but Jones was the only player near the ball.

“I’m not exactly sure,” Carter said when asked what he saw on the play. “We’re down there and we’re trying to play fast and it looked like there was just a miscommunication. We just had too many of those tonight. We had our chances, my gosh.”

In the fourth quarter, Lake Travis drove into Westlake territory three times only to come away with no points. The Cavaliers reached Westlake’s 43 early in the quarter but had to punt after recovering their own fumble. After forcing a Westlake punt, the Cavaliers drove to the Chaps’ 10 before Elliott Schaper intercepted Ditta for the second time on the night. And then came Jones’ interception – his third in 2 games against Lake Travis this season.

“We just weren’t sharp enough tonight, especially when we got down there inside the 25-yard line,” Carter said. “And we got down there a bunch.”

Lake Travis got inside Westlake’s 25-yard line 4 times and came away with an early touchdown and a field goal. They had to settle for the field goal in the second quarter after committing a false start at the 1-yard line.

In all, the Cavaliers turned the ball over 4 times, 3 in the second half. In both of their losses to Westlake this season, Lake Travis turned the ball over 4 times.

“I love how our kids fought,” Carter said. “I was very pleased with how we responded. We fought our tails off and you just can’t have the turnovers that we had. We were physical tonight but you have to take care of the football. It’s the turnovers.”

So for the second year in a row, Lake Travis sees its bitter rival end its season. As he said last year, Carter said losing to Westlake doesn’t make the loss any worse.

“I’ll be honest and maybe I’m old school,” Carter said. “Whenever you lose, it stinks. I don’t like losing to them but I don’t like losing to anybody. It sucks.”