Katy’s season ends in semifinal loss to Westlake

By Tyler Tyre, Sports Editor
Posted 12/11/21

“It’s all about teaching kids to grow up and teaching them to have that fight and have courage in themselves,” Joseph said. “I’m proud of them and what they did this year, I’m going to go in there and congratulate them, hug them and thank them.”

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Katy’s season ends in semifinal loss to Westlake

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Katy knew it would face its toughest game of the season when it played Austin Westlake.

The Tigers had fought through adversity all year, battling through injuries and finding ways to win to reach the Class 6A-Division II state semifinal.

The Tigers fight brought them this far, but it wasn’t enough against the No. 1 ranked team in Texas.

Westlake imposed its will and used a strong first half to down Katy and end the Tigers season, as the Tigers lost 45-14, the worst loss in Katy’s playoff history.

“When you play football, sometimes you are going to lose,” said Katy head coach Gary Joseph. “The kids will be ok and we’ll get back to work. We’ll have to bounce back next year but it doesn’t take away from what the kids did this year.”

Things went awry for Katy early, on the first possession of the game, the Tigers faced a fourth and one and decided to punt. Westlake responded by going on a 5 play, 76 yard drive and scoring on a 48-yard touchdown run to take the lead.

Katy picked up two first downs on their second drive but fumbled and Westlake recovered and quickly made it a two score game with a 37-yard touchdown pass from Cade Klubinik to Pierce Turner.

Klubinik, a Clemson commit, continued to punish Katy in the second quarter, and after a Westlake field goal, he threw touchdown passes of 20 and 18 yards to increase the Westlake lead. Katy finally got into the redzone late in the first half but was unable to come away with points as Westlake held on to a 31-0 at halftime.

“It was them as much as it was us,” Joseph said. “We tried to take away the short game, we didn’t want to just let them pick us apart, but they did a good job. You have to give them credit, they were the better team today.”

Katy tried had a number of fourth and shorts in the first half that the team decided to not go for them. With things becoming more urgent in the second half, the Tigers went for a fourth and one early in the third quarter but failed to score.

“First half, we had a fourth and one on the first drive, then we had a fourth and two and a fourth and three in the half too,” Joseph said. “We got another fourth and one and decided to go for it and didn’t make it. We didn’t do what we had to do but we have to be able to get them off the field at the same time. They made plays.”

Klubinik continued to dominate in the second half, throwing a 6-yard touchdown pass to Greathouse before Katy finally responded and got on the board with a 55-yard touchdown from Caleb Koger to Nic Anderson.

But Westlake quickly put away any chance to a comeback as Klubinik led the team down the field and threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Keaton Kubeka.

Katy got another touchown in the fourth quarter on a 31-yard touchdown pass to Anderson from Koger, but it was too late for the team to come back from such a deficit and Westlake ran the clock out for the last half of the quarter.

Injuries finally caught up to Katy as the Tigers had to play much of the game without junior running back Seth Davis.

Joseph is proud of what the team accomplished this year and the adversity the team and the seniors fought through.

“It’s all about teaching kids to grow up and teaching them to have that fight and have courage in themselves,” Joseph said. “I’m proud of them and what they did this year, I’m going to go in there and congratulate them, hug them and thank them.”

Austin Westlake 45, Katy 14

Westlake

14

17

14

0  

 --

 45 

Katy

0

0

7

 --

 14

First quarter

Westlake: Jack Kayser 48 run (Mark Sayegh kick) 8:15

Westlake: Cade Klubinik: 37 pass to Pierce Turner (Sayegh kick) 3:40

Second quarter

Westlake: Mark Sayegh 24 field goal, 9:50

Westlake: Klubinik 20 pass to Jaden Greathouse (Sayegh kick)

Westlake: Klubinik 18 pass to Keaton Kubecka (Sayegh kick) 2:40

Third quarter

Westlake: Klubinik 6 pass to Jaden Greathouse (Sayegh kick) 9:27

Katy: Caleb Koger 55 pass to Nic Adnerson (Axel Robertson kick) 5:08

Westlake: Klubinik 2 pass to Kubecka

Fourth quarter

Katy: Koger 31 pass to Nic Anderson (Robertson kick) 4:49

 

Team stats

Westlake

 Katy

  First downs

 21

 14

  Yards rushing

 26-125

 41-93

  Yards passing

 297

 206

  Passes

 19-26-5-0

 10-14-2-0

  Punts

  1-28

 4-33

  Fumbles-lost

  0-0

 1-1

  Penalty-yards

  7-65

 7-65

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Katy: Dallas Glass, 20-64; Seth Davis, 11-32; Isaiah Smith, 4-14; Nic Anderson, 1-2; Caleb Koger, 5-(-19); Westlake: Jack Kayser, 21-134; Bryce Chabers, 1-10; Cade Klubinik, 4-(-19)

Passing – Katy: Caleb Koger, 10-14-206-2-0; Westlake: Cade Klubinik, 19-26-297-5-0

Receiving – Katy: Nic Anderson, 5-151-2; Antonio Silva, 2-26; JR Ceyanes, 2-26; Seth Davis, 1-3; Westlake: Pierce Turner, 5-102-1; Jaden Greathouse, 6-84-2; Keaton Kubecka, 5-81-2; Bryce Chambers, 2-22; Jack Kayser, 1-8

Katy, Katy ISD, sports, football, Texas