Finally, it’s Week 1 of the Texas high school football season. Things kicked off around Central Texas with a pair of thrillers in the Austin area — Anderson’s 57-40 win over McCallum in the Taco Shack Bowl and Weiss’ 42-41 double-overtime win over McNeil. But tonight is the first Friday night of the season and there’s a full slate of games.

Follow this thread tonight for updates across Central Texas:

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Thrall 29, Thorndale 22

Lake Travis 17, Arlington Martin 10

Georgetown 47, Victoria East 0

Cedar Park 17, Harker Heights 7

Vandegrift 31, Dripping Springs 7

Glenn 7, Medina Valley 0

Rouse 36, Connally 3

Pflugerville 33, Leander 14

Hondo 29, Blanco 14

Lago Vista 14, Burnet 12

Victoria West 14, Lockhart 0

Johnson City 14, Granger 14

Round Rock Concordia 24, Leander Founders Classical 22

… and some 2nd quarter scores:

Cibolo Steele 35, Liberty Hill 14

Giddings 14, Jarrell 0

Marble Falls 29 Crockett 0

Travis 7, Akins 0

∙ Georgetown’s Jett Walker scored from 47 yards out to increase the Eagles’ lead over Victoria East to 47-0. Georgetown has scored on all seven possessions. Walker has rushed for 102 yards in the opening half on just seven carries.

∙ New Braunfels Canyon and Austin High are level at 14-14.

∙ They have reached the half at Vandegrift, as the Vipers hold a 24-point edge over Dripping Springs 31-7.

∙ Cedar Park leads Harker Heights 14-7 in the first. 

From Jay Plotkin, who’s covering the Lake Travis-Arlington Martin game tonight. First-half update:

Walker Moore’s interception late in the second quarter kept the Cavs leading Martin at the half. Moore’s interception of Brooks Brigance and 80-yard return set up a short Braydon Doane field goal to give the Cavaliers a 17-10 lead. Martin’s Brigance kept the Lake Travis defense on its heels early, but the Cavaliers’ secondary found its footing in the second quarter. After starting out 4-of-5 for 61 yards and a touchdown, Brigance finished the half completing just one of his final six throws for no yards and and interception.

Vann Hopping has rushed for both Lake Travis touchdowns.

∙ Marble Falls has raced out to a 14-0 lead over Crockett in the first.

∙ Regents leads Lorena 9-0 in the second stanza.

∙ Austin High has taken a 14-7 lead over New Braunfels Canyon in the second quarter. 

∙ Travis is up 7-0 over Akins in the second. 

∙ Lake Travis answers an Arlington Martin touchdown with a touchdown of its own as Vann Hopping ran 19 yards up the middle for his second score of the night as the Cavs lead Martin 14-10.

∙ LBJ now leads San Antonio Houston 27-0 with 2:16 in the first.

∙ Hays leads Elgin 10-0 in the first.

∙ At Vandegrift, the Vipers have expanded their lead over Dripping Springs to 28-7 in the second quarter. 

∙ Lago Vista is up 14-6 over Burnet in the first.

More Austin-area updates:

∙ Playing its first game as a Class 4A squad after two years in Class 5A, LBJ leads San Antonio Houston 14-0.

∙ The opening quarter up in Georgetown can’t end soon enough for Victoria East. There’s still 55 seconds to play and the Eagles have expanded their lead to 37 points after Max Muniz’s improbable touchdown catch off teammate Xavier Warren’s back at the goal line. (The Eagles had been called for an illegal formation penalty on their 41-yard field goal try on the previous snap, which forced them to go for it on fourth down.)

∙ Austin High and New Braunfels Canyon are tied 7-7 in the first. 

∙ Rouse leads Connally 29-0 in the second quarter, while Glenn is leading Medina Valley 7-0 also in the second. 

∙ Rouse has jumped out to a 15-0 second quarter lead over Connally.

∙ Victoria West leads Lockhart 7-0 in the second quarter. 

∙ Johnson City leads Granger 7-0 in the first.

∙ In a rivalry game, Thorndale has jumped out to a 15-8 lead over Thrall. 

∙ Lago Vista strikes first as the Vikings lead Burnet 7-0 in the first. 

∙ Cameron Yoe is up 7-0 over La Grange. 

∙ Vandegrift has taken a 14-0 lead over Dripping Springs. That game’s at Vandegrift.

∙ In Arlington, Tristan Naifeh’s 38-yard field goal has pulled Arlington Martin to within 7-3 of Lake Travis toward the end of the opening quarter.

∙ Georgetown is rolling Victoria East 30-10, having forced three turnovers in the first three minutes.

∙ In private schools, New Braunfels Christian leads Austin achieve 7-0 in the opening stanza. 

Remember when Georgetown was up 8-0. We’re still not even through the first quarter and the Eagles are up 22-0 over Victoria East. Georgetown has scored three touchdowns, and after the first two touchdowns the Eagles then recovered fumbles on the kickoffs.

How bad of a start is this for Victoria East? There’s 2:12 left in the opening quarter and the Titans have yet to run an offensive play.

Lake Travis punched in its opening possession, a 1-yard TD run by Vann Hopping. Chaston Ditta was 4 of 5 on the drive, completing short passes on the 47-yard drive. With 8:34 left in the 1st quarter, it’s Lake Travis 7, Arlington Martin 0.

Facing a third-and-21 on Georgetown’s own 29-yard line, Xavier Warren electrified the home crowd as he took a pass from Caleb McDougall 71 yards for a touchdown against Victoria East. With 10:56 left in the first quarter, Georgetown is up 8-0.

For the third consecutive season, Lake Travis will be opening the season with Arlington Martin. The Cavaliers will be looking to get their passing attack back on track after struggling throwing the ball last season (or at least struggled by Lake Travis standards).

The Cavs are coming off an 11-3 season in 2023 that included an upset over an undefeated Vandegrift squad in the area round of the Class 6A playoffs before bowing out of the postseason with a 21-14 loss to Westlake in the state quarterfinals. Here’s our preseason team glance, including three big questions the Cavs are facing this season.

Staff-wise, we all picked the Cavs this week.

Where Austin-area/Central Texas teams are ranked in Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine preseason state rankings:

Class 6A: No. 5 Westlake, No. 8 Lake Travis, No. 24 Vandegrift

Class 5A DI: No. 11 Weiss, No. 18 Cedar Park

Class 5A DII: No. 8 Liberty Hill

Class 4A DI: No. 8 LBJ, No. 17 Lampasas

Class 4A DII: No. 5 Wimberley, No. 25 Lago Vista

Class 3A DII: No. 12 Blanco

Class 2A DII: No. 18 Granger

Anderson tops McCallum again: In a game that saw Anderson QB Max Gerlich throw for 7 TDs and run for another, Anderson outlasted McCallum 57-50 in the annual Taco Shack Bowl at House Park. Gerlich threw for 308 yards and added 138 on the ground, including the TD as the Trojans took their third straight Taco Shack win. We were there; here’s Rick Cantu’s game story.

Weiss survives McNeil without Brown: Playing without New Mexico State QB commit Jax Brown, Weiss edged McNeil 42-41 in overtime. Brown was lost for the season after suffering a season-ending injury in last week’s scrimmage against Waco University.

A shutout for the Hawks: Hendrickson posted its first shutout since 2019, as the Hawks clipped Belton 14-0. 

Eight in a row: Stony Point opened its season with its eighth consecutive season opening win as the Tigers edged East View 28-22.

Westlake’s opening statement: Westlake, our No. 1-ranked preseason area team, trailed Prosper 14-13 at halftime before reeling off 22 unanswered points in the second half as the Chaps notched their 43rd consecutive regular-season win, 35-14. Here’s our takeaways from the game.

Tonight’s Austin-area high school football schedule

These are all nondistrict matchups tonight.

The best game around tonight: Dripping Springs at Vandegrift, 7 p.m. These are both top-10 area preseason teams heading into the season, and both have hopes and expectations of a district title and playoff run. The Vipers probably have the edge, but this should be a good one.

The second-best matchup: Liberty Hill at Cibolo Steele, 7:30 p.m. Too bad this one’s not at Liberty Hill. Both programs are traditional playoff powers, so this is a great first-week pairing. It’ll give us the first look at the Panthers’ rebuilt running game.

Other games on the schedule. We’ll publish finals as we get them later:

Lake Travis at Arlington Martin, 7

Victoria East at Georgetown, 7

Leander at Pflugerville, 7

Bowie at Manor, 7:30

San Marcos at Hutto, 7

New Braunfels Canyon at Austin High, 7:30

Killeen Shoemaker at Round Rock, 7:30

Waco Midway at Westwood, 7

Hays at Elgin, 7:30

Killeen Chaparral at Lehman, 7:30

Lockhart at Victoria West, 7

Vista Ridge at Killeen, 7

Johnson at Cedar Ridge, 7:30

Travis at Akins, 7:30

LBJ at San Antonio Houston, 7

Bastrop at Alvin, 7

Connally at Rouse, 7

Crockett at Marble Falls, 7:30

Navarro at Eastside, 7:30

Northeast at St. Andrew’s, 7:30

LASA at Manor New Tech, 7:30

Cedar Creek at Del Valle, 7:30

Cedar Park at Harker Heights, 7:30

Glenn at Medina Valley, 7

Gatesville at Taylor, 7:30

Canyon Lake at Wimberley, 7:30

Giddings at Jarrell, 7:30

Smithville at Rockdale, 7:30

Llano at Lytle, 7

Fredericksburg at Lampasas, 7:30

Troy at Salado, 7:30

Thorndale at Thrall, 7

Nixon-Smiley at Luling, 7:30

Florence at Rosebud-Lott, 7:30

Central Texas scores from Thursday night

Westlake 35, Prosper 14

Anderson 57, McCallum 40

Weiss 42, McNeil 41 (2 OT)

Stony Point 28, East View 22

Hendrickson 14, Belton 0