Black Diamonds finally return home for homecoming, Broken Bow
For the first time since Aug. 30, the Sallisaw Black Diamonds will play at the friendly confines of Perry F. Lattimore Stadium when they welcome the Broken Bow Savages to town at 7 tonight for a District 4A-4 showdown. The Black Diamonds haven’t played a home game since the Zero Week season-opener Aug. 30 against Pryor, won by Sallisaw 31-14.
“Being back home with our home crowd and being on our home field again, it feels good to be back home,” Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler said. “Our kids are excited about it, plus it’s homecoming on top of that. So not only do we have the distractions of that, we’re playing a very talented football team. It ought to be a good one (tonight). We just have to have our minds right and be ready to play when the ball kicks off at 7 p.m.”
The Savages (3-1 overall, 1-0 in district play) are on a three-game winning streak after getting past Durant 42-34, archrival Idabel 42-21 and last week’s district opener over Glenpool 51-0. Their only loss came on Zero Week when they lost 37-26 on Aug. 30 to McAlester.
“We’re definitely going to see the best athlete and best quarterback in (Class) 4A right now,” Tyler said. “The (Greyson) Howell kid is very talented. If he gets in the open field, there’s not going to be a lot of people who are going to catch him. All their skill kids are very talented. They all run well and run great routes at receiver. They do a good job offensively. They’re very athletic at a lot of the skill positions. Their (offensive) line is big and physical. Defensively, they fly to the football. They’re very physical at the point of attack. Their defensive line is very good. They’re pretty good at linebacker. We definitely have to step it up. Our offensive line has their work cut out for them. It’s a typical Broken Bow football team. They have a few more kids out with the coaching change they had. Broken Bow is playing very well right now, and they’re a wellcoached football team.”
From a Sallisaw defensive point of view, it all begins with keeping Howell in check.
“We have to do a great job of containing him this week,” Tyler said. “We have to control the clock. Like I told the kids all week, we’re going to have to go back to the Pryor game and have a lot of eight- to 10-play drives and eat some time off the clock. This week, our offense can be our best defense, keeping them off the field.”
The Black Diamonds (4-0, 1-0) are off to their best start in more than a decade. Tonight’s home game comes on the heels of a three-game road trip in which Sallisaw won them all — 35-21 over Stigler, 27-14 over Eufaula and last week’s District 4A-4 opener 4034 over Hilldale in double overtime after trailing 21-6 at halftime.
“Going on the road for three weeks in a row and winning all three of those says a lot about our program and our kids right now,” Tyler said. “Those are three tough places (Stigler, Eufaula and Hilldale High School in Muskogee) to go win at, and we were able to do it. We’re finally back home this week with homecoming and Broken Bow coming to town.”
Tyler said the Hilldale 2OT victory showed him a lot about his team.
“Our kids kept battling and fighting all the way through,” he said. “We kind of dug ourselves a hole there early. I was glad the way we kept responding. I thought our kids did a great job of keeping their composure. Coming out in the second half, we played the way we are capable of playing. We go down and score on that opening drive of the second half, get a (defensive) stop and go down and score again to get it back to within reach. We get into overtime, and we were able to prevail. I was proud of our kids and our coaching staff the way we came out in the second half and played a lot better in the second half obviously.”
Winning the district opener last week was crucial for the Black Diamonds.
“This is a tough district,” Tyler said. “From top to bottom, it’s one of the most competitive districts in (Class) 4A. We have another tough one this week.”
A big factor tonight will be how well the Black Diamonds focus on the Savages and not the pregame homecoming festivities.
“I told the kids that if it wasn’t for a football game, there wouldn’t be homecoming,” Tyler said. “We got to hook up and get after it, and leave all the distractions behind us. We have to focus on winning a football game. It’s just unfortunate we had to pick this game to have homecoming, but we only have four home games. It happens, and we had to get it knocked out. We just have to stay focused. We got to step up and stay focused on them (the Savages) and not the distractions of homecoming.”
