WOODVILLE – The Woodville Eagles defeated the Diboll Lumberjacks 32-14 Friday in Woodville on Homecoming Night. Both teams are coming off victories last week as Woodville defeated Coldspring-Oakhurst 39-14 and Diboll overtook Rusk 24-19. The win improves the Eagles to 3-1 on the season, while the Lumberjacks drop to 1-3. Diboll was Woodville’s lone district loss last year.
The pregame festivities began with senior Sheyiyan Hart being announced Homecoming Queen. Hart is a softball player and basketball manager for the Lady Eagles.
The Eagles scored early going up 15-0. On the next offensive possession, Dustin Barlow ran the ball on a 41-yard scamper to set the Eagles up deep into the Lumberjacks territory. Woodville would eventually go up 25-15 after an interception by Savon Bolden ended a Lumberjack drive.
The final score of the game was set up by a 19-yard run by Luke Babin and a 19 yard touchdown pass from Babin to Corey McDaniel.
Babin, Barlow and McDaniel were the top offensive performers of the game. Barlow was also the player of the game with 14 rushes for 122 yards (8.7 yards per carry) and a touchdown.
The Eagles racked up 257 total yards with 37 passing and 220 rushing. Diboll was held to 136 total yards with 42 passing and 94 rushing. Woodville was 8-17 on third down conversions while the defense held the Jacks to just one for eleven. Both teams had two turnovers including a fumble and interception for each team.
Defensively, senior Jathan Traylor graded out the highest with seven tackles, three assists on tackles with three being behind the line of scrimmage. Jacob Hunter, Tavion Hunter, Marquis Menefee and Astin Daily also had a standout night defensively for the Eagles.
The Eagles will travel to Trinity Friday night to play the undefeated Trinity Tigers. All sub-varsity games will be at home on Thursday starting at 4:30.
Tayvion Hunter received Texas High School Player of the Week award earlier this week for his outstanding performance in the season opener versus Orangefield.