Westlake continues to be the team to beat in the Texas single-school league, as they defeated HEB last week and Rock Rugby this week to now sit at 5-0.

“Those boys were huge,” said Westlake Head Coach Jason Spodick of HEB. “It’s looked like we were playing against a men’s team. Regardless, the match was a great reminder to our boys that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.”

Junior scrumhalf Ryan Rees continues to develop and has improved his box kick, giving Westlake an extra dimension to their attack. 

“We have really developed a great attack using his foot from behind the scrums and rucks,” said Spodick. “He has scored or set up a score in every match he's played in.”

Against Round Rock, Westlake’s JV won comfortably and Spodick posited that his varsity squad perhaps started the game thinking their contest would be the same. It wasn’t, as Rock took the opening kickoff and galloped 70 meters to score. Another quick attack from Rock put them up 14-5 after 12 minutes. After that, Westlake settled down.

"We have tendency to want to slug it out around the fringes, even though we know style is wide open,” said Spodick. “We want to stretch the field."

Captain Bobby Butchofsky reorganized the forwards to move the pods wider out, and that forced Rock’s forwards to run, as well. Westlake went on a 19-point run to lead 24-14 at halftime, and scored a try and a penalty to win 34-21.

Westlake now has survived some of its toughest tests, including Jesuit of Dallas and Lake Travis.