SMHS FOOTBALL
Luke McBride threw three touchdowns, ran for a fourth and Van Hopping added 102 yards and a touchdown as the seventhranked 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-forblow. 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 had to jump to control shotgun snaps and receivers dropped passes.
Punter Julio Alvarado punted nine times for a 30yard 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), whose only win came against Austin High, lost 52-0 against 15th-ranked Dripping Springs on Friday.
Quarterback Buck Steyn attempts to make the pass over the jumping Lake Travis defender. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
