Seven Sallisaw football players were singled out by the Black Diamond coaching staff for Player of the Week honors following the team's impressive 42-14 win at Eufaula last Friday.
Kyle Stewart and Eli Rhoades were the offensive honorees. Stewart, a sophomore tailback, entered the game when starter Bubba Philpot suffered an ankle injury and went on to rush for 115 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries.
"We were tickled to death that Kyle came in a did what he did and still played well on defense," said Sallisaw head coach Virgil Terry.
Rhoades, a senior right guard, helped the clear the way for Sallisaw runners as the Diamonds averaged more than five yards per carry.
Senior linebacker Matt Hancock made nine tackles to earn defensive honors along with senior defensive back Cody Coleman, who had seven tackles and broke up a pass.
"This may have been Cody Coleman's best overall game. He did a good job of covering their receivers all night," said Terry.
Jake Seay won the special teams award after returning two kickoffs for 57 yards, including a 36-yarder that helped swing the momentum back in Sallisaw's favor.
"His second return was after they tied it at 14-14, and Jake takes it back to the 50 to set us up on a short field," commented Terry.
Senior right tackle Jadon Turner graded out the highest among offensive linemen to win the Hog award, while junior fullback Joe Branham got the Big Stick for a punishing block early in the game.
"We ran power off-tackle on the first play of the game and Joe hits this kid in the face and the kid thinks he's dead," said Terry. "We had a lot of big hits, but Joseph had more than one and that broke the tie."
OSSAA Releases Softball District Pairings
Sallisaw edged Roland 9-7 on Monday to earn a regular season split with the Lady Rangers. The two teams will meet again next week in Class 4A district action as the fastpitch softball playoffs get under way.
Lady Diamond head coach Tasha Beaty said she didn't mind playing Roland so close to their postseason matchup.
"It doesn't matter, because you're going to get them anyway and you might as well see them a couple of times during the year," said Beaty. "I'd rather see them now than two weeks earlier."
The best-of-three district series will be played at Sallisaw, but the schools have not yet agreed on whether to play Wednesday or Thursday.
In other district softball pairings announced Friday by the OSSAA, Muldrow got a tough draw and will play at Class 4A No. 6-ranked Poteau. The Lady Bulldogs can take some encouragement from extending Poteau to 11 innings before suffering a close loss a couple of weeks ago.
In Class 3A, the Vian Lady Wolverines were sent to Keys for their district playoff.
The Class 2A district pairings have Central playing at Panama, while Gore was assigned to a three-team district hosted by Porum. Quinton is the third team.
Webbers Falls will open the Class A playoffs in a district tournament hosted by Oaks. Braggs and Arkoma round out the four-team field.
Young Diamonds Sweep Fort Gibson
The Sallisaw junior high football teams didn't allow a point while sweeping three games this past Thursday at Fort Gibson.
The Black Diamond seventh-graders beat Fort Gibson 8-0, while the eighth-graders rolled to a 26-0 victory. The Sallisaw freshmen posted an 8-0 triumph in a game that was called at halftime because the lights weren't working.
The Sallisaw junior high teams will be in action at home this week against Muldrow, with the seventh grade game kicking off at 5 p.m.
