Gridiron Gumbo

Woodville Holds the Pen: Why a 3-5 Team Gets to Write the Ending in 12-3A-DII

Illustration of a giant feather quill in a gumbo pot at midfield with four smaller gumbo pots linked by glowing arrows in a circle

Written by

T-Rohn

in

Texas (UIL) ,

By T-Rohn
Gridiron Gumbo | Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026 | UIL Week 10 preview · District 12-3A-DII

Four teams are tied at 2-1, their head-to-head results run in a circle, and the one with the worst overall record plays two of the other three.

Pull up the District 12-3A-DII standings this morning and you’ll find four teams at 2-1: New Waverly, Newton, Hardin and Woodville. That’s four spoons in one gumbo pot, and none of them is letting go.

Look a little closer and only one of them is holding the spoon that matters. It belongs to the team with the worst overall record of the bunch, the 3-5 Woodville Eagles.

Here’s why. Woodville’s last two games are against two of the other three co-leaders. The Eagles host Hardin on Friday, Oct. 30, and then travel to Newton on Nov. 6. None of the other contenders gets two shots at the teams it’s tied with. New Waverly finishes against Warren and Kountze. Hardin finishes against Woodville and Warren. Newton finishes against Kountze and Woodville.

So Woodville doesn’t just control its own fate. It gets a vote on everybody else’s.

TAKE: Handing one team a vote on everybody else’s season is how every family reunion in Texas ends up with five green bean casseroles, no forks and one very powerful woman holding the sign-up sheet.

Mais, cher, that’s not a ladder. That’s a merry-go-round.

Usually head-to-head results sort out a crowded district. This one went in a circle:

  • Oct. 9: Hardin beat Newton, 25-24.
  • Oct. 16: Newton beat New Waverly, 46-7.
  • Oct. 23: New Waverly beat Hardin, 31-14.

Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, paper beats rock, and somewhere a crawfish is laughing. If those three end up tied, head-to-head can’t settle it among them. New Waverly also edged Woodville 23-22 on Oct. 9, which is the only reason the Eagles aren’t sitting alone at 3-0.

TAKE: A district that goes in a complete circle may be a first for Southeast Texas. Nothing else around here has ever made a full lap without getting stopped by a train.

Gridiron Gumbo hasn’t seen 12-3A-DII’s published tiebreaker procedure, so the math below counts only wins and losses. It does not try to break ties. As of Saturday morning, Oct. 24, MaxPreps’ team pages list New Waverly first, Newton second, Hardin third and Woodville fourth, without saying how they were ordered. SETXsports lists the same order, but its table breaks ties by overall record and notes that official tiebreak procedures may use other criteria.

TAKE: An unpublished tiebreaker is the district version of a recipe that lives in Maw Maw’s head. Everybody swears it exists. Nobody has seen it written down. Nobody is brave enough to ask her to.

The scoreboard does show who has been winning big in district play:

TeamDistrictOverallDistrict points for-against
Newton2-15-2140-40
Woodville2-13-5120-36
Hardin2-15-3108-66
New Waverly2-17-161-82
Kountze1-23-5—
Warren0-33-5*—

*Warren’s 3-5 counts a non-district forfeit win from Hull-Daisetta (MaxPreps counts it; SETXsports doesn’t and lists 2-5). The forfeit doesn’t change Warren’s district record.

New Waverly’s story runs the other way. The Bulldogs are 7-1 and have won three games by two points or fewer: 30-28 at Crockett, 36-35 over Trinity and 23-22 over Woodville. Winning the close ones is a skill too, and those three games are part of how New Waverly got to 7-1.

Why “3-5” is lying to you

Woodville’s overall record is the cheapest Mardi Gras bead on the float. Don’t judge it by the shine.

The Eagles lost their four non-district games to Little Cypress-Mauriceville (21-6), Buna (29-20), Orangefield (20-6) and Hardin-Jefferson (41-28). Those four opponents are a combined 23-10 this morning, and two of them sit at the top of their own districts: Orangefield alone at 4-0 in 10-3A-DI, and LC-M tied with Vidor at 3-1 in 9-4A-DI. Woodville’s one non-district win was 18-10 over Jasper.

In district play the Eagles have one loss, by one point, on the road. Since then they’ve won 42-13 at Warren and 56-0 over Kountze. That is plus-84 over three district games, second only to Newton.

Junior running back Austin Land has carried a lot of the load. The Tyler County Booster reported that he ran 15 times for 223 yards and three touchdowns at Warren, his fourth straight game with at least two rushing scores. MaxPreps credited him with 15 rushing touchdowns through that game. The same Booster story credited junior lineman Nasir Harris with 13 tackles, 10 of them solo.

Both of the last two 3A-DII state runners-up live here

This district carries a lot of December mileage.

In 2024, Woodville reached the first state championship game in school history and lost 28-0 to Gunter at AT&T Stadium to finish 13-3, according to KJAS. KJAS noted that no earlier Woodville team had made it past the second round. Coach Heath Clawson, now in his second year, led the Eagles to a 9-3 record and 5-1 in district in his first season last year, and they reached the area round. KJAS reported that their only district loss came against Newton.

Newton played for the 3A Division II title last December and lost 25-24 to Wall. 12NewsNow reported that the Eagles had trailed 25-8 at halftime before rallying. KJAS reported that Dave Campbell’s Texas Football picked coach Drew Johnston’s team as the preseason No. 1 to win it all this year. Senior running back Kendray Porter Jr. ran for more than 2,500 yards and 38 touchdowns in 2025, per KJAS, and MaxPreps credits him with 16 rushing touchdowns through Week 8 this season.

One number keeps showing up. Newton’s lone district loss this fall, at Hardin on Oct. 9, was also 25-24. Football has a strange sense of humor. We’ll leave it at that.

TAKE: Same score, twice. In most districts that’s a coincidence. In this one it’s a clerical error with a scoreboard.

And yes: Woodville and Newton are both the Eagles. On Nov. 6 in Newton, one Eagles team will beat the other. Last year that meeting produced Woodville’s only district loss.

The Week 10 menu

Gridiron Gumbo ran all 64 possible win-loss outcomes of the district’s last six games. The top four teams make the playoffs. “Clinch” below means a team is in on wins and losses alone, with no tiebreaker needed.

  • Hardin at Woodville (Oct. 30, 7 p.m.): A Hardin win clinches a playoff spot for Hardin. A Woodville win puts Woodville in the top four outright in 31 of the 32 outcomes that follow, and the other one leaves it in a tie for fourth.
  • Newton at Kountze (Oct. 30, 7 p.m.): A Newton win clinches a playoff spot for Newton.
  • New Waverly at Warren (Oct. 30, 7 p.m.): A New Waverly win puts the Bulldogs in outright in 31 of 32 outcomes. A Warren loss ends Warren’s playoff hopes.
  • Win out and you get a seat at the head of the table: Any of the four 2-1 teams that wins its last two is guaranteed at least a share of the district title. The paths differ, though. Woodville wins it outright in 12 of 16 win-out outcomes, because it beats two co-leaders itself on the way. Hardin and Newton each win it outright in 9 of 16, and New Waverly in 5 of 16.
  • Lose both and it gets dicey for the kingmaker: If Woodville drops both games, it’s in on wins alone in only 3 of 16 outcomes.
  • Kountze (1-2) isn’t dead: The Lions can still get a share of the title, but only by beating both Newton and New Waverly.
  • Pick a tie, any tie: Of the 64 outcomes, 35 produce a single champion. Thirteen produce a two-way tie for first, eight a three-way tie, seven a four-way tie, and one produces a five-way tie at 3-2. In that one, Woodville beats Hardin, Hardin beats Warren, New Waverly beats Warren, Newton beats Woodville, and Kountze beats both Newton and New Waverly. If that happens, somebody in Tyler County is going to need a bigger pot.

TAKE: Kountze’s path to a share of the title is a two-lane road in East Texas: narrow, no passing, and a log truck in front of you the whole way.

Hardin’s next game happens to be in Woodville. Newton’s last game happens to be against Woodville. A 3-5 team is holding the pen, and the ink hasn’t dried yet.

TAKE: Four towns are about to get very, very polite on the subject of the pen. In East Texas that means a ten-pound bag of boudin, a pecan pie and a Sunday dinner invitation that comes with a ride.

Records are as of Saturday morning, Oct. 24, after Week 9. District records and points come from the SETXsports standings, checked against MaxPreps. Week 9 finals (New Waverly 31, Hardin 14; Woodville 56, Kountze 0; Newton 70, Warren 8) were confirmed by SETXsports and MaxPreps. The Huntsville Item also reported New Waverly’s win over Hardin. Texashsfootball.com/scores was checked Saturday morning, but its widget listed only Saturday games, so it did not confirm these Friday finals. Playoff scenarios are Gridiron Gumbo calculations and ignore tiebreakers.

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