By Michael Adams
madams@onthesidelinessports.com

It’s well known Austin’s breakfast tacos are superior to San Antonio’s. But there’s another place Austin might be superior to their neighbors to the south – the high school football playoffs.

An interesting stat floated around the press box at The Alamodome this weekend: Lake Travis and Westlake are a combined 33-1 over San Antonio teams in playoff games since 2016.

 That’s just Lake Travis and Westlake.

Curious, I dove through the University Interscholastic League archives and to find out how lopsided the San Antonio-Austin rivalry really was, and it is confirmed: Austin owns San Antonio in the football playoffs.

Teams from the Austin area are a combined 75-20 (.790) in the playoffs against teams from the San Antonio area since 2016.

That’s fairly dominant.

Westlake and Liberty Hill are both undefeated against teams from the Alamo City. The Chaparrals are 17-0, while the Panthers are 11-0. Lake Travis is 16-1, Dripping Springs is 4-0 and Vandegrift is 7-2.

LBJ, Lago Vista and Wimberley are also undefeated against San Antonio in the playoffs. Both Wimberley and LBJ are 3-0, while Lago Vista is 4-0.

If you break this down by opponent, only Boerne Champion (3-2), Boerne (2-0) and Kerrville Tivy (2-1) have winning records against Austin teams in the postseason.

Two Austin teams will face teams from the San Antonio region this weekend in regional finals of the 2023 Texas high school football playoffs – Dripping Springs (Steele) and Liberty Hill (San Antonio Piper).

For Dripping Springs, Steele is 5-5 against Austin schools with wins aginst Vandegrift (2), McNeil, Round Rock, and Bowie. The Kinights beat McNeil in the area round of this year’s playoffs. The good news is Driping Springs is 3-0 against 6A teams from San Antonio.

Liberty Hill’s undefeated record may be in jeopardy this weekend when the Panthers take on San Antonio Pieper. The Warriors defeated Liberty Hill 33-23 in the regular season finale on Nov. 3. More on that in a minute. First, here’s a look at how Austin schools stack up against San Antonio schools in the football playoffs:

School	Record	winning %
Westlake	17-0	1.000
Liberty Hill	11-0	1.000
Dripping Springs	4-0	1.000
Lago Vista	4-0	1.000
Wimberley	3-0	1.000
LBJ	3-0	1.000
McCallum	1-0	1.000
Manor	1-0	1.000
Lake Travis	16-1	.941
Vandegrift	7-2	.777
Cedar Park	3-1	.750
Hays	3-2	.600
Georgetown	1-1	.500
Bowie	1-3	.250
McNeil	0-1	.000
Round Rock	0-1	.000
Glenn	0-1	.000
Bastrop	0-1	.000
Austin High	0-1	.000
Northside	0-1	.000
Taylor	0-2	.000
East View	0-2	.000

Who’s up for a rematch?

There are two games in this weekend’s regional finals that are regular season rematches. The above mentioned Liberty Hill-Pieper 5A-Division II, Region IV final and Lake Travis-Westlake in the 6A-Division I, Region IV final.

Piper (12-1) has played four Austin area schools this season, with it’s only loss being to Wimberley in week two of the season. The Warriors are in their third year of existance and has quite the turnaround, going from 2-8 in 2022 to 12-1 and reaching the regional finals.

Liberty Hill is 1-1 against Pieper all time, winning last year’s matchup 47-7. We’ll have more on that game later this week.

The other rematch is one of Texas’s best rivalries, Westlake vs. Lake Travis.

Westlake and Lake Travis are no strangers to each other. This will be the 19^th meeting between the two schools with the Cavaliers holding a 11-7 record over their rivals. However, Lake Travis is 1-5 in its last six games against the Chaparrals, including this year’s 20-14 loss at Cavalier Stadium.

The Battle of the Lakes has only taken place in the regional finals one other time. Lake Travis won that matchup 51-3 at Kelly Reeves Stadium in 2016 to cap a 10-game winning streak against Westlake. There will be more on that game later this week as well.

Until then, I’ll see you on the sidelines.