Gridiron Gumbo

Two Points Decide It: Avoyelles Wins at Oakdale 42-40 in the 6-2A Opener

Two cast-iron pots with golden roux running down the sides sit over glowing burners on a football field at night, sending up a thick column of steam.

Written by

T-Rohn

in

Louisiana ,

By Tori Dixon | Gridiron Gumbo
Friday, Oct. 23, 2026 · LHSAA Week 8 · District 6-2A
FINAL · CONFIRMED

REPORTED: Final score per MaxPreps, KALB, KPLC and the American Press; records, schedules and standings per MaxPreps (retrieved Oct. 23–24, 2026); season context per Louisiana Football Magazine and KALB. No quarter scores, scoring summary or player stats were published by any outlet we checked. District math, where shown, is Gridiron Gumbo’s own (sources below)

Eighty-two points, two-point margin. Avoyelles won its fourth straight, and its Oct. 30 game with Port Barre now looks like the 6-2A title game.

THE ESSENTIALS

  • Final: Avoyelles 42, Oakdale 40 (Friday, Oct. 23, at Oakdale)
  • Records (MaxPreps): Avoyelles 5-3, 1-0 District 6-2A · Oakdale 2-6, 0-1
  • Next: Avoyelles vs. Port Barre, Friday, Oct. 30 (district) · Oakdale vs. Holy Savior Menard (Oct. 30 per MaxPreps; district)

The recap

Avoyelles won a shootout at Oakdale on Friday night, 42-40, in the District 6-2A opener for both teams.

TAKE (joke): Eighty-two points in one game is the football equivalent of a crawfish boil where somebody keeps saying “just one more sack.”

It was the fourth straight win for the Mustangs (5-3), who have beaten Block, Many, St. Martinville and now Oakdale since a 48-22 loss to Marksville on Sept. 25, according to their MaxPreps schedule. Oakdale (2-6) scored 40, its second-highest total of the season behind a 52-7 win over Oberlin.

How it unfolded

We can’t tell you who scored when. MaxPreps listed no quarter scores for this game, and as of Saturday morning we found no scoring summary, game story or player stats for it from the American Press, KALB, KPLC or any other named outlet. We would rather say that than guess.

TAKE (joke): No quarter scores, no scoring summary and no individual stats, so for now the official record of this game lives in a cousin’s memory, and that cousin has already told it three different ways.

What the schedules do show is how Avoyelles got here. The Mustangs started 1-3, with a 42-12 win over Ville Platte and losses to Sacred Heart, Bunkie and Marksville, then reeled off a 52-0 win over Block, a 22-20 win over Many, a 30-20 win at St. Martinville and Friday’s two-point win.

Oakdale’s side of the ledger is just as notable. The Warriors, 0-10 in 2025 per Louisiana Football Magazine, had scored 112 points in their first seven games this fall, an average of 16.0 by our math from MaxPreps. Friday’s 40 was two and a half times that. Coach Kevin Bertrand also picked up his 100th career win the week before, KALB reported, and the station’s Oct. 21 Coaches Corner previewed this game as Oakdale’s “pivotal home game.”

TAKE (joke): Two and a half times the average is the kind of math you only trust with a calculator, a receipt and an aunt to double-check it.

The district race

Avoyelles (1-0) and Port Barre (1-0) are the only unbeatens in 6-2A play, and they meet Oct. 30 at Avoyelles. Oakdale (0-1) hosts Holy Savior Menard (0-1) next week (Oct. 30 per MaxPreps), then visits Port Barre on Nov. 5.

By Gridiron Gumbo’s math, the winner of the Avoyelles–Port Barre game would take the 6-2A title outright by also winning its last district game: Avoyelles at Holy Savior Menard on Nov. 6, Port Barre against Oakdale on Nov. 5. (Our count, not an LHSAA announcement.)

What others missed

  • Two-point games are becoming a habit. Avoyelles has won two of its last three games by exactly two points: 22-20 over Many on Oct. 9 (per MaxPreps) and 42-40 at Oakdale.
  • A slow-start team that fixed it. Avoyelles coach Corey Bannister said in July, in Louisiana Football Magazine’s district preview, that the Mustangs “somehow always start 0-3” and that he wanted that fixed this fall. The Mustangs started 1-3 and have won four in a row.
  • The district was wide open until Friday. KALB’s scoreboard shows Port Barre beat Holy Savior Menard 36-32 the same night, which, per MaxPreps, was Port Barre’s first win of the year. That put two 1-0 teams at the top of a four-team district and set up Oct. 30.

TAKE: Two district teams at 1-0, one of them coming off a two-point win and the other off a first win of the year, makes Oct. 30 in Moreauville the game to see in 6-2A.

Sources

Featured image: Gridiron Gumbo illustration. No outside photos.

Corrections: Gridiron Gumbo fixes errors promptly and notes changes at the bottom of the story. Spot one? Tell us.

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