Arlington Martin collapses in the second half in blowout loss to Austin Lake Travis
The Arlington Martin football team hoped to get a good gauge of where they are as a football team by facing an Austin Lake Travis team that was ranked No. 8 in the state in Class 6A by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.
Martin, No. 3 in the Star-Telegram Class 6A Area Rankings, played neck and neck with the Cavaliers in the first half, but starting quarterback Brooks Brigance got banged up before halftime and was held out in the second half allowing Lake Travis to run away with a 51-12 win over the Warriors in the season opener for both schools on Friday night at Choctaw Stadium.
“My dad always told me that it’s never as bad as it seems and it’s never as good as it seems, but this one feels pretty bad,” said Martin coach Chad Rives. “Brooks was bleeding and just beat up. It’s a long season and this is the first game.
“We’re gonna need him. He’s the best player in the city and you saw what he can do.”
The Warriors hung tough in the first half, even after Lake Travis (1-0) took the opening kickoff and marched 47 yards in 11 plays. Running back Vann Hopping carried it in from a yard out to give the Cavaliers a 7-0 lead with 8:34 left in the first quarter.
Martin (0-1) then went on an 11-play march of its own from its own eight yard line to the Lake Travis 21. The drive was marred by four penalties, but Tristan Naifeh came on and nailed a 38-yard field goal to cut the lead to 7-3 with 2:17 left in the opening frame.
Naifeh then tried an onside kick that he followed the necessary 10 yards and pounced on to give Martin the ball back at the Lake Travis 48. Six plays later Brigance found Brody Williams on a slant over the middle for a 17-yard score to give the Warriors a 10-7 lead with 11:54 left in the second quarter.
The teams traded two punts each that ate up most of the rest of the first half, but the Cavaliers took over at the Martin 37 after a short punt from deep in Warrior territory.
Hopping did the honors again with a 19-yard run right up the middle, running over a referee on his way to the end zone, to make it 14-10 Lake Travis with 2:50 left before the intermission.
Martin got the ball back and was on the move with a 27-yard run by Brigance down to the Lake Travis 32. But two plays later Lake Travis defensive back Walker Moore stepped in front of a Martin receiver at the 16 and returned the interception 80 yards down to the Martin four yard line.
Not lost on the play was the hustle of Brigance who ran down Moore to save a touchdown. The effort paid off as the Warrior’s defense held and forced the Cavaliers to settle for a 26-yard field goal by Braydon Doane.
“It was huge,” said Rives of Brigance’s touchdown saving play. “If we would all play like that then we would win a lot of games.”
Doane’s kick hit the right upright and barley snuck over the crossbar, but Lake Travis upped the lead to 17-10 with 19 seconds left in the first half.
After the break without Brigance at the helm, the wheels completely came off for Martin. The Warriors punted on its first five possessions of the second half and Lake Travis scored touchdowns after each one.
“You always hear people talk about the next man up,” said Rivas. “Well when your quarterback goes down, we didn’t handle that very well.
“You could feel it. The juice kind of left and we have to overcome that. We have to be mature enough to know that we have 10 other guys and we have to make something happen.”
It wasn’t only the offense, however. The defense and special teams for the Warriors also fell apart.
Two punts saw the center snap sail over the head of the Martin punter, which was Brigance in the first half, creating short kicks. The Warriors had 111 yards of total offense in the second half with 56 coming on one pass play.
Lake Travis quarterback Chaston Ditta tossed touchdown passes of 38 and nine yards to Patrick Colby and Josiah Thomas, respectively. The latter pushed the score to 31-10 with 5:49 left in the third quarter.
Then Hopping scored three more times on runs of 34, nine and 50 yards. The junior finished with 181 rushing yards on 13 carries with the five TDs.
Ditta was 12 of 21 passing for 146 yards and two scores for the Cavaliers. Before his exit, Brigance, who came in at No. 67 in the Star-Telegram Top 100 players list, had rushed nine times for 74 yards and had 61 yards passing hitting four of 11 attempts.
The gauntlet continues next week for Martin as the Warriors travel to Denton to face Denton Guyer.
“We’ll look at the film and it doesn’t get any easier for us next week,” said Rivas. “Goodness gracious, Denton Guyer, if we feel sorry for ourselves then it will be even worse. We have to fix it quick.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2024 at 11:33 PM.