Paced by three tries from No. 8 Charle Cross, Lake Travis moved to 3-0 in the Rugby Texas league with a 19-10 defeat of Rock Rugby Friday night.

Lake Travis has had to work hard to rebuild a backline after much of that unit graduated in the spring. But Head Coach Rick Medina has gone back to the basics and made sure he can fold in a new cadre of players. It’s working.

“We have good athletes and defensively we’re strong,” said Medina. 

They are still getting the finer points of attacking play, and as a result the Lake Travis games have been low-scoring. 

“But you can’t teach heart, and these guys have heart,” said Medina. “They don’t want to give in. I didn’t know what to expect with these guys and the way they’ve thrown themselves into learning the game has been one of the more satisfying coaching situations for me.”

Cross has been a force all season. Medina said he reminds the coach of former Lake Travis and later Life University standout Mike Islava. Meanwhile, some other players have started to make an impact. Football linebacker Nick Villareal is now a hard-tackling center. Josh Haro is playing well at flyhalf and had a good night last night, while in the forwards flanker Maui Trevino and hooker Isaiah Escala led a sterling effort.

Having beaten Dallas Jesuit 10-5 and Plano 46-14, Lake Travis is now 3-0 in Rugby Texas. Rock Rugby has lost two very close games to Lake Travis and, before that, Westlake, but have shown marked improvement.