Going against District 25-2A’s top scoring offense, Salado’s defense put together one of its best games of the season.

Lago Vista managed just 78 yards of total offense as the Eagles’ defense more than lived up to its hard-nosed reputation.

Salado continued to steamroll toward a third straight district championship with a 22-0 win over Lago Vista on Friday night at Eagle Stadium.

The Eagles (6-2) remained unbeaten in 25-2A at 4-0, with Rogers, which beat Lexington 45-10, also perfect at 3-0.

“Anytime you play great defense, you’ve always given yourself a chance to make some plays,” Salado coach Jeff Cheatham said.

Of the 47 plays Lago Vista (5-2, 1-2) ran, just six went for longer than 5 yards.

The 78 yards allowed by Salado was its second-lowest total of the season. To put that in perspective, that total is 120 yards under the Salado defense’s season average.

It was simply thorough domination of a Slot-T offense that had averaged nearly 38 points per game.

“We knew what they were going to do,” said linebacker Patrick Prince, the Eagles’ leading tackler. “We knew they weren’t going to pass it very much, so we just had to line up and play every down as hard as we could.”

Lago Vista’s first three series were an absolute disaster. The Vikings never registered a first down, coughed up a fumble and managed just 16 yards on nine plays. It took until less than 5 minutes remained in the first half for Lago Vista to record a first down.

By that point, the Eagles had the win all but wrapped up. Rushing touchdowns by running back Tyler Wright and quarterback Jerod Lutz gave Salado a 15-0 halftime lead.

And the Eagles knew what was coming against the Vikings’ Slot-T offense.

Lago Vista was going to run it right at them in the hope of controlling the clock and possession. Neither worked going into the teeth of the Eagles’ defense.

Play after play, Salado, led by Prince, Tyler Coker, Heath Bracken and Garret Ward, made sure Lago Vista got virtually nothing.

And even when the Vikings tried to catch the Eagles off guard by going down the field, it didn’t work. Lago Vista failed to complete a pass.

“We knew we had to do a good job reading our keys,” Cheatham said. “They (Lago Vista) do a great job of getting you baited into a situation where they can hurt you with the pass. I thought our kids did a great job tonight.”

The team that was able to control the clock and possession was the Eagles.

Salado totaled 256 rushing yards and averaged nearly 6 yards per carry.

The Eagles had most of their success simply running right into the Vikings’ defensive front.

“We wanted to get and become a little bit more physical in the run game,” Cheatham said. “The kids did that tonight.”

Wright had a game-high 132 yards and a first-quarter score on 16 carries. Logan Foster had 47 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown on six carries.

Cheatham and the Eagles have long wanted to spread the ball around to keep opponents off balance and utilize the strengths of various players.

Salado’s newest name in the backfield is tight end Coker, who had success from the start.

He had a two-point conversion run after the Eagles’ first score and picked up much-needed yards in the fourth to help Salado run the clock.

Coker’s hard-running style helped him gain 36 yards on six carries.

“I enjoyed it,” Coker said. “I just tried to be one piece of the puzzle and do what the coaches say to help the team.”

Coker also caught two passes for 51 yards.

“Tyler’s a heck of a football player,” Cheatham said. “He makes plays on defense and does a lot of things for us."

rschneider@temple-telegram.com