The Steele Knights were so close to eating turkey after football practice on Thanksgiving that they almost could taste it Saturday.
But it was not to be.
The Lake Travis defense threw Steele running back Malcolm Brown for a 1-yard loss on fourth-and-goal at the 3 with 12 seconds left, preserving a 27-20 victory for the Cavaliers in a Class 4A Division I second-round playoff game at the Alamodome.
Lake Travis, which has won 42 games in a row and state championships each of the past two years, improved to 12-0 this season. The Cavs play Corpus Christi Flour Bluff in the Region IV semifinals at noon Saturday at the Alamodome.
“The game went down exactly like it went in my head all week,” Steele head coach Mike Jinks said. “I thought we would score with 15-16 seconds left and win the game. It hurts but the better team won.”
Steele finished 9-3 after falling to Lake Travis in the same round for the second season in a row. The Cavs beat the Knights 38-21 last season en route to the Division I crown.
Brown was spectacular in defeat, rushing for 299 yards and one touchdown on 33 carries. His 25-yard scoring run and two-point conversion tied the game at 20-20 with 6:05 left in the third quarter.
“Travis is a great team,” said Brown, a junior. “They’ll probably win state again. We tried our best, but we didn’t execute at the end. We just couldn’t get in.”
Lake Travis head coach Chad Morris grasped for words to describe Brown’s stellar performance.
“He’s unbelievable,” Morris said. “I told him to keep his head up. He’s special.”
Steele held the Cavs, who had scored at least 52 points in nine of their previous 11 games, to their lowest point total of the season.
“I’ve said all along that Steele has a great team,” Morris said. “It was deemed as a game that would go down to the wire and that’s how it turned out. I hurt for them but I’m happy for us. We had a lot of don’t-quit today. It’s one of those games where you say it’s a shame somebody had to lose.”
The Knights led 12-0 in the second quarter and appeared on the verge of going ahead by more when Brown broke loose on 74-yard run down the right sideline.
But the game turned for good when cornerback Connor Nelson stripped Brown of the ball inside the Cavs’ 20, and cornerback Taylor
Wrinkle recovered the fumble at the 17 with 8:04 left in the half.
Andy Erickson scored on a 21-yard run seven plays later. Kramer Fyfe’s extra-point kick sailed wide left, but the damage had been done.
After forcing Steele to punt on its next possession, the Cavs went ahead 13-12 on quarterback Michael Brewer’s 32-yard run. Brewer ran for a 3-yard TD on the opening possession of the second half, giving the Cavs a 20-12 lead.
Steele forced Lake Travis to go three-and-out on the possession following Brown’s TD, but the Cavs got the ball back at the Knights’ 33 when they recovered a fumble by Jake Hatcher on the punt return.
Brewer threw a 28-yard TD pass to Erickson three plays later, putting Lake Travis ahead to stay with 3:29 remaining in the third period.
There was no scoring in the fourth quarter, but Steele came close on its final possession.
Starting from their 7, the Knights moved 63 yards in nine plays before facing a fourth-and-2 at the Lake Travis 20 with 34 seconds left.
Brown kept the drive alive with a 4-yard gain, and then quarterback Nick Sergent hit running back Alfonzo Trammell with a 13-yard pass on first down, giving Steele a first-and-goal at the 3 with 26 seconds to go.
Sergent spiked the ball on first down before throwing two incomplete passes, leaving the Knights staring at a fourth-and-goal at the 3 with 17 seconds remaining.
Brown ran off left tackle but was stood up in the backfield before he could get going.
“It felt like a fantasy,” Sargent said, describing the Knights’ final drive. “We were so close.”
Sergent had a receiver open on his pass first pass in the end zone, but just missed connecting with him.
“I wish I had that one back,” he said. “I just didn’t get my shoulders square and my feet right.”
Jinks, who has built a regional power in just four seasons, said he would have opted for a two-point conversion attempt if Steele had scored.
Brewer, the son of former University of Texas quarterback Robert Brewer, completed 13 of 18 passes for 199 yards and one TD.
Erickson scored Lake Travis’ other TD on a 21-yard run.
Steele took a 2-0 lead when a snap to punter Jack Patton went out of the back of the end zone midway through the first period. The
Knights drove to the Cavs’ 15 on the ensuing possession, but had to settle for a 33-yard field goal by Jeremy Sanchez.
Steele went ahead 12-0 when defensive lineman Andre Jenkins intercepted a pass by Brewer at the Knights’ 20 and returned it 80 yards for a TD on the first play of the second quarter. After Tauren Anderson threw a key block on the return, Jenkins outran Patton the rest of the way.
