Sallisaw ends season with home sweep of Tulsa Webster

The good news for the Sallisaw High School soccer teams Friday night was they sent their seniors off in fine fashion as they swept district foe Tulsa Webster at Perry F. Lattimore on Senior Night. The Lady Diamonds began the night with a 4-1 win over the Lady Warriors, then the Black Diamonds blanked the Warriors 6-0.

However, even though both Sallisaw teams won, it was not enough to earn either team a postseason berth, so the 2024 season came to an end for both squads.

In the girls’ match, it was the Kyra Taylor show for the Lady Diamonds (3-8 overall, 3-5 in district play), who ended the season by winning three of their final four matches, in the first half as she scored all three Sallisaw goals for a 3-0 halftime lead. Each goal had a different player assist as Alayna Donaldson had the assist on the first goal, senior Emily Pack had the second goal assist and Brooklyn Donaldson had the assist on goal No. 3.

Senior Lilly Taylor made sure she got in the boxscore as she scored Sallisaw’s lone second-half goal, with Kyra Taylor getting the assist.

The Lady Warriors scored with exactly six minutes left in the match to avoid the shutout.

Sallisaw goalkeeper Jocelyn Rivera had one save on two shots faced on the night before being pulled out into the field for the final minutes of action.

In the boys’ match, Wes Rodriguez scored goals at the 28:46 mark off an assist from senior Jet Romero and again at the 23:45 mark thanks to an assist from Brian Castor for a 2-0 lead for the Black Diamonds (64, 4-3) for his 30th and 31st goals of the season.

Castor scored Sallisaw’s third goal of the first half off an assist from Rodriguez to make it 3-0 with 14:23 left before halftime.

Phillip Hennessee scored an unassisted goal for the final goal of the first 40 minutes for the Black Diamonds, who entered the break up 4-0.

Senior Quinton Terry’s goal early in the second half upped Sallisaw’s advantage to 5-0. The assist went to Josh Taylor.

After not having to make any saves in the first half, senior Cameron Holmes stepped out into the final and scored the match’s final goal, thanks to an assist from Romero.

Sallisaw Black Diamonds back-up goalkeeper Elijah Hill made three saves, all coming in the second half.