By Thomas Jones, Sports Editor

The Chaps greeted an undisputed District 25-5A title with a few congratulatory hand slaps, a handful of smiles and a realization that they had achieved just the first of their goals.

After all, Westlake’s first district championship since 2007 came almost as a formality during a 4-0 win over Austin High Tuesday at Chaparral Stadium.

“It’s very exciting to win district,” first-year coach Rennie Rebe said. “Our goal is too go undefeated in district, and we still have one more game to go [against Akins Saturday]. But we wanted to get in that No. 1 slot going into the playoffs.”

The Chaps (13-0 in district, 18-3-1 overall) reached that top seed in typical dominating fashion. They controlled the pace of the game from the opening whistle, firing off 10 of their 12 shots on frame in the first half while building a 3-0 halftime lead.

In comparison, the Maroons (6-7) didn’t mount a sustained threat at any point in the match against an organized defense anchored by sweeper Lauren Peterson. Austin High’s lone shot on goal came on a weak dribbler from 35 yards out midway through the second half.

The Maroons, traditionally a playoff participant, didn’t even commit a foul while meekly giving up the midfield to Westlake.

The win gave Westlake its 12^th consecutive shutout. The Chaps have outscored district foes 47-1 and have tallied 37 goals in the last six games.

According to one of Westlake’s 10 seniors, the district title helped validate the relationship between a new coach and a veteran team.

“At the beginning of the year, I expected the players to be really good,” forward Lexi Iverson said. “I didn’t know about the coaching, though.”

“But I think we were ready for a change. We embraced it. It [the change] turned out good, obviously.”

Iverson helped the Chaps turn out a good result against Austin High by dissecting the Maroons’ defense from the left wing. In the 17^th minute of the match, Iverson just missed on a cross to Reilly Wheat that would have broken a scoreless tie. Moments later, however, Iverson again outflanked the Maroons’ flat back and launched another cross into the box that Carmela Doerr collected and booted into the net.

Westlake built its lead to 2-0 in the 27^th minute when Sarah Gross outmuscled a Maroon defender and headed home a goal.

Iverson then transformed from a facilitator into a finisher. She whipped through Austin High’s back line in the 31^st minute and just missed getting a touch on a Wheat cross. Les than a minute later, Iverson again raced to space in front of the goal and turned a Wheat pass into a 3-0 Westlake lead.

“Our plan is to keep it wide and try and open up the middle,” Iverson said.  “When we played them [the Maroons] before, we beat them on the outside. I had some confidence that we could do it again.”

Rebe credited Iverson’s play on the left wing for helping to open up Austin High’s defense.

“Once we beat their flat back, they lost their organization in the back and didn’t know what to do,” she said. “We could go in or out, and that was key for us. We did it early in this game, and that was the difference.”

Senior Natalie Cersonsky capped the game by tapping in a loose ball in the 67^th minute. 

District 25-5A standings 

                     Record Points  GF   GA

*yWestlake       13-0 37        47   1

*Pflugerville   10-3 29        56   31

*Bowie           10-3 28        51   12

*Bastrop          9-4 23        46   17

Austin             6-7 17        24   25

Anderson         4-8 12        15   34

Connally          2-10 6          10   48

Akins               0-13 0          1     82

Through March 12

*clinched playoff spot

y clinched district title