Posted: Sat, 10 Sep 2011 08:11 AM - 13,436 Readers

By: Brent Shirley

It's not often Aledo football fans have a reason to leave a game early. If anything, they are accustomed to starting their celebration early in the second half.

But Friday night, in a matchup of the two defending Class 4A champions, it was the Lake Travis Cavaliers (3-0) who were celebrating well before the game ended.

Aledo's fans could only file to the exits.

The Bearcats were flattened 62-35, dropping to 1-2 for the first time since 2005, when they started 1-3.

Lake Travis scored two quick touchdowns to take a 14-0 lead after the first quarter. But Aledo, which had picked up only one first down and punted on its first two possessions, quickly tied the game.

The Bearcats made the score 14-7 with an 18-play, 79-yard touchdown drive that ended with Johnathan Gray scoring from 6 yards out. Then, after Aledo's defense forced its first stop of the game, Gray scored again on one play, an 82-yard TD run with 8:15 left in the second quarter.

The Cavaliers offense, however, kept putting up points. Aledo couldn't keep up.

Baker Mayfield completed a 59-yard TD pass to Zach Austin for a TD to make the score 21-14 with 7:07 left before halftime. After Aledo added a field goal, Mayfield threw another TD to Griffin Gilbert, a 13-yard pass across the middle.

Gray and Aledo continued the scoring frenzy. The Bearcats scored again, a Gray 2-yard TD and a 2-point conversion from Matthew Bishop to Michael Mann, to cut Lake Travis' lead to 28-25.

But Aledo left 1:21 on the clock, plenty of time for the Cavaliers to score again and take a 35-25 halftime lead; Mayfield found Gilbert for a 36-yard TD.

Lake Travis got the ball to start the third quarter, and Aledo's defense forced and recovered a fumble on the Cavaliers' 11. Aledo settled for a field goal.

The Cavaliers scored TDs on four of their six second-half possessions to put the game out of reach.

Gray, who finished with 257 yards rushing on 27 attempts, scored on another long run with eight minutes left in the game. Gray took the ball up the middle, cut right, and sprinted to the sideline and end zone for a 68-yard touchdown.

Mayfield finished with 307 yards passing for six TDs, four of them to Gilbert. Colin Lagasse led the Cavaliers in rushing with 102 yards and two TDs.

Aledo lost WR Willie Gibson to an injury in the second half. The game was stopped for more than eight minutes while Gibson was strapped to a stretcher and taken off the field.

*  Story Contributed by: Brent Shirley