Westlake vs. Cedar Ridge Tonight: The District 25-6A Title Race Runs Through Chaparral Stadium at 7 p.m.
Both teams are already in the playoffs. What is left to settle is bigger: the district crown, the top seed and a home playoff game - and 8-0 Cedar Ridge has already beaten one Austin power on the road this month.
Friday night's biggest Austin game is a title fight. Westlake hosts unbeaten Cedar Ridge at Chaparral Stadium at 7 p.m., with the winner taking the inside track to the District 25-6A championship, the district's top seed in the 6A Division 2 playoffs and a home playoff game in two weeks. Both teams have already punched their playoff tickets; everything else about the bracket runs through tonight.
Cedar Ridge arrives 8-0, riding a 10-game winning streak dating back to last season, and it has already won the kind of game it needs tonight: on October 9 the Raiders went to Lake Travis for that stadium's opening night and won 35-34. Quarterback Dylan Snoga leads an offense that has scored in bunches, and the defense - anchored up front by Jeremiah Passmore - has been the season's quiet story. 'We're playing teams that have won state championships, but if you take that logo off, it's just a team, and we just go out and play,' Passmore said this week.
Westlake's answer is pedigree and form. The Chaparrals are 7-1 and unbeaten in district play after last Friday's 38-17 win at Lake Travis in the Battle of the Lakes, and Cedar Ridge coach Bryan Vardeman knows his Raiders are not sneaking up on anyone. 'We have a lot of respect for what (Westlake) does,' Vardeman said of his own team's preparation, 'but our approach never changes.' Cedar Ridge is one of only two unbeaten 6A teams left around Austin; the other, 9-0 Cedar Park, hosts Vista Ridge tonight, also at 7.
Theirs is the headline act of a statewide Friday: Sports Illustrated's UIL scoreboard lists 552 games across Texas tonight. In Austin, one of them decides a district. The desk's roundup of tonight's finals files after the games end.
