ARLINGTON - Coming into Wednesday’s Class 1A Division I championship game, Westbrook head coach Homer Matlock knew his Wildcat defense needed to be in top form to topple Abbott and win a second consecutive state championship.

The defense wasn’t just in form, it was dominant, holding Abbott to 3.1 yards per play and recording tackles for loss on 10 of the Panthers’ 40 plays on the way to the 69-24 victory.

Abbott entered the game averaging 55.5 points per game and had not scored fewer than 32 points all season. Westbrook was also able to hold Abbott to 17 rushing yards on 25 carries – an average of 0.7 yards per carry. Everything went according to Matlock’s plan.

“Our defensive coaches all get together and come up with a defensive scheme and when you come into a game like this you’ve got to decide what your identity is and how we’re going to play,” Matlock said. “We just decided that we’re going to be aggressive and that’s who we’re going to be. We’re going to set the edges hard, then we’re going to fill hard and our guys did a really good job of that today.”

Cedric Ware – who doubled up as defensive and offensive MVP – led the Wildcats with 10 tackles, with most of those made possible by that strategy.

“Hadley White and Ethan King set our edges really well and it allowed Cedric to fill and he’s going to come away with all the tackles and get defensive MVP but if those guys aren’t setting edges, that doesn’t happen. I’m super proud of how those guys played.”

With a two-touchdown lead at halftime and a three-score lead after the opening drive of the third quarter, the Wildcats could have sat back and cruised to a win, but consistent pressure pushed them toward the mercy rule win. Parker Matlock set up the game-sealing drive with an interception.

“We play aggressive. We feel like prevent defense prevents wins, so we’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to get out there. Sometimes it gets us a little bit because we get too much into it but we’re going to be aggressive when we play.”

The defensive performance put a cap on another championship season and highlighted what coach Matlock thought was an overlooked unit this year.

“Our defense didn’t get the credit it should have this year, but we were playing No. 1’s and No. 2’s all year long, so when our defense is still considered pretty good and you’ve been playing those teams, it kind of goes hidden all year. This afternoon we kind of put that on display, I’m really proud of our defense.”