Westlake's Tony Salazar came up short again, but a state title is in his future | Bohls

PFLUGERVILLE — Callan Nokes thought he needed to give his head football coach a little pick-me-up recently.

So Nokes, the Westlake athletic director and legendary former Chaparrals boys golf coach who won 13 state championships, went up to second-year coach Tony Salazar and dropped some wisdom on him.

“You’re 28-1 in your first two years,” Nokes told him. “Can you name any other coach in history, including Todd Dodge, who has done that?”

Salazar was stumped.

“You make a pretty good point,” he finally responded.

And the animated, highly emotional Salazar is still a pretty good coach. Yeah, even now at 28-2.

He lost again to his nemesis Saturday. Just like a year ago, when Westlake fell 49-34 to Galena Park North Shore in the Class 6A Division I high school state football semifinals despite holding the lead in the third quarter, the Chaps were tripped up again by the Mustangs in the semifinals.

It didn’t feel any better Saturday at the Pfield than it did in 2023. But this ultratight 23-14 loss in which North Shore tacked on an interception in the end zone on the game’s final play will only drive Salazar even harder, if that’s even possible.

He’s pretty obsessed as it is.

“It’s funny,” Nokes said. “He watches more film and spends more time in the classroom than any of our staffs, and I coached for four years for coach Ron Schroeder, who was one of the best coaches in high school history.”

Tony Salazar looks like the right coach at the right time for Westlake

Salazar hasn’t reached that status yet, but give him time. After all, Dodge won seven state titles at Westlake and Southlake Carroll, but his first with the Chaps was in Year 6.

Dodge’s record after two years? A 21-6 mark with a loss to North Shore in overtime in the 2015 final. So Salazar’s trending in the right direction.

This defensive-minded film addict still needs a state championship on his résumé as a head coach, even though he was Dodge’s defensive guru for the state championship trophies Westlake hoisted three consecutive seasons from 2019 to 2021.

You can bet it’ll come. Maybe even next year.

If anything, Salazar’s 14-1 club overachieved this season. Just don’t tell that to the Chaps.

“Our standard is still the standard,” a distraught Salazar said after the game. “These players will take that challenge head on. They’re fearless.”

They were Saturday, too, but came up short, as they have in a dozen state semifinals.

It just wasn't Westlake's day on Saturday

Salazar's crew, playing without its best lineman, had only 115 total yards and too little offensive firepower to accompany one of Westlake’s customary spectacular defenses, one that throttled North Shore most of the day. For much of the game, it was evenly matched, even though sophomore quarterback Rees Wise completed just 3 of 16 passes for 29 yards and simply wasn’t ready for a rugged defense like North Shore’s.

Westlake never got in any kind of sync offensively, and the Mustangs totally bottled up the Chaps’ lightning-quick 5-foot-6 running back Jack Kayser except for the Army-bound back’s 45-yard touchdown burst on the first play of the second half.

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Wise, a 6-3, 190-pounder, is considered an alpha quarterback on the order of another Chaps quarterback, Sam Ehlinger, but needs time. Westlake’s first 15 plays netted just 21 yards.

“I wish I could have done more,” said Wise, who took over the starting job during the season. “I’m excited for next year. Our team is looking really good.”

That it is.

“This is an exceptional Westlake team,” Nokes said. “It’s more about heart and soul and culture. They played as well as they are physically capable of.”

Despite saying goodbye to 61 seniors, the largest football senior class ever at Westlake, the Chaps will return four offensive linemen along with Wise to go with terrors on the defensive side such as tenacious linebacker Elliott Schaper, defensive end Connor Vasek (whose brother Colton plays for Texas) and tough-minded defensive back Payton Luther. Not a loser in the bunch.

“It sucks,” Luther said. “Two years in a row. But we’ll be back. We take it personal.”

“I’m just sad for all the seniors,” Schaper said. “I feel I let ’em down. But we’re a great defense. People know that.”

North Shore knew it.

The Mustangs, the third-ranked team in the nation, according to MaxPreps, have posted a 76-4 record the past five years and will go after their sixth state championship against Duncanville next weekend in a rematch of last year’s title game, which the Panthers won.

But on this gray, overcast day, North Shore managed just two offensive touchdowns all game, one on a 1-yard Kaleb Bailey run on fourth down as Westlake couldn’t complete a goal-line stand.

Bailey’s a big, almost lumbering 6-2, 220-pound quarterback like former Longhorn Tyrone Swoopes. He has already had offers from seven programs, including TCU; has started as a freshman on a state champion team; and was effective in moving the chains as a runner against the blitzing Westlake defense, though he had trouble scoring.

Not that he’s the first to struggle against the Chaps, who gave up an average of just 8.7 points this season.

“You know why Tony got the job? Because all of us who worked with him know how good he was,” Nokes said. “He had the state’s No. 1-ranked defense in 2020 and 2021. That was Tony’s baby. He studies more film and is more cerebral than anyone I’ve seen. Our defense is just ferocious. I’ve been on the sidelines, and he’ll see the formation and motion and call out the play to our defense, and he’s right every time.”

He was right more often than not Saturday.

But he’s still in search of that elusive first state title.

“It’s a little disappointing,” said the Longhorns' Ethan Burke, who took in the game with UT teammate Michael Taaffe and other former Westlake players. “But the defense is just violent. That’s the way they always play.”

And always will. That’s just in the Westlake DNA.

“Preparing like a bunch of champions for the last five weeks to come up short again is just tough to swallow,” Salazar said. “But we’ll be right back in this spot. We just got to finish next time.”

Maybe time for another pep talk for the coach.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Westlake football falls short of Class 6A title game with 23-14 loss