Sallisaw senior was glad to be a spark for Black Diamonds in season opener

Any athlete has to be ready to step in for an injured teammate at a moment’s notice. Take Sallisaw senior quarterback Brock Streun.

In last week’s season opener against Stigler at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium, Sallisaw starting quarterback Jackson Harris was injured right before halftime, with the Black Diamonds trailing 19-6.

Stern stepped in and finished the game, sparking a 28-0 offensive outburst thanks to four rushing second-half touchdowns to take the Black Diamonds from a 27-6 deficit to a 34-27 lead with 7:24 left in the game.

“It was a whole lot of things collectively,” Streun said. “We just went out there and brought the energy. I talk all the time with my O (offensive) linemen, and I love them. When I went out there, I told them, ‘If you all block hard for me, I’m going to play hard for you all. I’m not going to give up on you.’ I kind of gave them the energy. We came in here at halftime, and I gave them a quick speech. I said, ‘All right, boys! It’s my last year. Let’s get it going! We worked too hard for this. We’ve worked really hard for this. We deserve this (win).’ We went out there, and we responded really well.”

The atmosphere made one believe that the 16-game losing streak was going to end. Unfortunately, the Panthers scored with 2:06 left in the game to snatch away the victory. Streun said the team did everything it could to keep the lead and end the streak.

“What was really going through our minds was we had to keep the same intensity, work ethic, intensity and energy we went out there with (to start the game),” he said. “You just kind of think about the little things — let’s get this first down, let’s run this play, let’s look at our reads. We were really focused on making the right reads. We were focusing in on the defense. We were trying to block out all the other intangibles.”

If there was a solace in the home loss, it was the amazing crowd — a packed house of fans who stayed until the final horn.

“It was amazing,” Streun said. “I haven’t been a part of that for all my Black Diamond football days. We’ve had some troubles in the past. I couldn’t play last year because of my back — and just a lot of stuff that went down. The atmosphere was crazy. The fans were hot. Everybody was ready to go. It was awesome to be a part of.”

So now, the Black Diamonds will be looking to end a 17-game losing streak the next time they hit the field, but they will have to wait until Sept. 8 when they travel down U.S. 64 to meet the county rival Muldrow Bulldogs at 7 p.m. at Marty Rogers Field. Streun said this week’s bye is good in some ways and not as good in other ways.

“It’s kind of a give and take,” he said. “I would like to play Friday night to get the juices flowing again, get that (Stigler) loss out of our minds and go beat somebody, but it’s also great to have this bye week to prepare for Muldrow. It’s a big game for us. The main thing is to keep the energy up in practices. We’ve had great practices the past couple of days. We’re really looking good. We’re going into the Muldrow week, and we’re going to be fired up and ready to play again. It’s going to be like a refresher. We’ve already put that (Stigler) loss away. We’re ready to go for Muldrow.”

Of course, at this time last year, Streun was sidelined with a back injury, so it felt good to be out on the field playing last Friday night.

“It felt amazing,” the senior QB said. “There’s no better rush than playing football. It was amazing being out there.”

__________

Correction In the 2023 High School Football Preview Sections, the season-preview story on the Black Diamonds accidentally misquoted new coach Brandon Tyler about one of his players. The quote should have said: “We have Max Stump — he’s a returning starter,” Tyler said. “He and Cooper Cox had a good summer.”

Later on in the same story, another Tyler quote about his defensive backfield should have said: “You’ll see Max (Stump) and Cooper (Cox) playing some corner,” the new Sallisaw coach said.

Your TIMES regrets the error.