SAN MARCOS -- Luke McBride threw three touchdowns, ran for a fourth and Van Hopping added 102 yards and a touchdown as the seventh-ranked Lake Travis Cavaliers defeated the San Marcos Rattlers, 41-6 Friday in non-district football action at Toyota Rattler Stadium.
Lake Travis improved to 4-0 this season including wins against Martin, Rockwall and Midland Legacy.
“The Lake Travis defense is phenomenal,” Head Coach John Walsh said. “Those defensive ends set the tone, but it's not just those guys. That's a great defense. But I thought our defense went blow for blow. The 41 points does not tell the story because we went 3 and out and kept putting them on the field. We got a state championship defense and the offense just has to catch up.”
McBride threw a pair of touchdowns to Jackson Lueders and a third to Lark Sidle. Weston Smith led all receivers with 62 yards on five catches.
San Marcos, now 2-2 with wins against Hutto and Wagner, had a total of 10 yards of offense in the first half on 27 plays before finding a little room to run with the game already decided.
Justin Tardy rushed for 63 yards, followed by Donovan Garcia with 32.
Quarterback Buck Steyn completed 5 of 19 passes for 15 yards on a night when he alternately had to jump to control shotgun snaps and receivers dropped passes.
Punter Julio Alvarado punted nine times for a 30-yard net average while making two field goals, one from 38 yards out and one from 26 yards out.
“When you have a leg like that and you can always kick it out of the endzone,” Walsh said. “Even his bad kicks are going out of the end zone. On field goals, it's good to have a weapon. In my career, I'd have too many [kickers] where I can just pull up from 40 and know it's going to go in and Julio's that. In the playoffs, it's going to be tight ball games and a field goal [is needed to] win it.”
San Marcos begins District 29 play Friday at home against Buda Johnson. Johnson (1-3) and whose only win came against Austin High, lost 52-0 against 15th-ranked Dripping Springs on Friday.
Lake Travis 41, San Marcos 6
| LTHS | 10 | 24 | 0 | 7 | -- | 41 |
| SMHS | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -- | 6 |
First Quarter
LTHS - FG: 29, Brayden Doane, 7:18
LTHS - Luke McBride 3 run (Doane kick), 4:39
Second Quarter
LTHS - Vann Hopping 10 run (Doane kick), 11:23
LTHS - FG: 44. Doane, 8:09
LTHS - Lark Sidle 22 pass from McBride (Doane kick), 3:50
LTHS - Jackson Lueders 10 pass from McBride (Doane kick), :23
Third Quarter
SMHS - FG: 38, Julio Alvarado, 7:27
Fourth Quarter
LTHS - Lueders 2 pass from McBride (Doane kick), 10:26
SMHS - FG: 26, Alvarado, 5:02
LTHS SMHS
First Downs 12 6
Total Plays-Net Yds 65-300 53-81
Rushes-Yds 35-122 34-66
Passing 178 15
Comp-Att-Int 17-30-1 5-19-1
Sacked-Yds Lost 1-0 3--17
Punts-Net Avg. 5-32 9-30
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 3-1
Penalties-Yds 6-40 7-51
Time of Poss 24:41 23:19
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING - LTHS: Vann Hopping 20-102, Wesley Glass 3-8, Luke McBride 9-8, Braison Jones 3-4; SMHS: Justin Tardy 15-63, Donovan Garcia 9-32, Jaiden Narro 3-7, Elliott Gray 1--2, Buck Steyn 6--34
PASSING - LTHS: Luke McBride 17-30-1 178; SMHS: Buck Steyn 5-19-1 15
RECEIVING - LTHS: Westin Smith 5-62, Harrison Kolkhorst 3-43, Jackson Lueders 4-33, Lark Sidle 2-26, Van Hopping 3-20; SMHS: Hank Harris 1-5, Jordan Lampkin 1-5, Elliott Gray 2-4, Darrian Cruz 1-1
