Black Diamonds look to rebound from homecoming loss tonight against Tulsa McLain
The Sallisaw Black Diamonds will look to bounce back from last Friday night’s District 4A-4 home loss to Broken Bow on homecoming by getting a district road victory tonight against the Tulsa McLain Titans.
Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler believes his Black Diamonds (4-1 overall, 1-1 in district play) are up for the challenge.
“We’ll find out Friday night,” Tyler said. “We’ll see how we respond when we get off the bus at 7 p.m. We’ve had a good week of practice. The kids came out with a lot of excitement Monday, so, hopefully, it will carry over into Friday night. We’ll get up there at 7 p.m. and kick it off, and be ready to go to battle for 48 minutes.”
Despite the loss, the Black Diamonds still have all their major goals attainable — such as a district title, a home playoff game and, of course, a state championship and a gold ball for the trophy case.
“That’s what I told the kids (last) Friday night,” Tyler said. “One game is not going to define our season. We still have all our goals of finishing 9-1 now and getting a home playoff game. All our goals are still there we’ve been working for. I think our kids are going to respond. I think we’ll have a better outcome (this) Friday night. I’m looking forward to it, and I know our kids are. It’s not like basketball or baseball where you get to turn right around and play the next day. We’ve had to wait a whole week to get back and try to prove ourselves again. Our kids have responded well. I think we’re up for the challenge this week. We’re ready to go.”
The Titans will come into tonight’s district game at 3-2 overall and 1-1 in district play. After losing their district opener 41-12 to Ada on Sept. 27, the Titans bounced back with an 18-6 home win over Stilwell last week. The Titans went 2-1 in non-district games, beating Tulsa Central 18-14 for a Zero Week victory Aug. 30 and routing Tulsa Webster 56-8 on Sept. 13. Sandwiched in between their two wins over their fellow Tulsa schools was a 42-24 setback to Tulsa Victory Christian on Sept. 6.
“They’re athletic,” Tyler said about the Titans. “They’re big and athletic. They run well. They have a lot of seniors.
They play hard. They’re well coached in what they do. We definitely got our hands full going on the road up there.”
The biggest thing Tyler said the Black Diamonds need to do is to start quick, unlike what happened in the first two district games against Hilldale and Broken Bow.
“We have to set the tone early,” he said. “We have to start early and fast. We haven’t done that for the last two ball games. Offensively, we’ve got to start generating some points in the first half.”
All the Black Diamonds are expected to be ready to go tonight, with the exception of one player.
“(Running back) Kenyan Hill took a pretty good shot there late in the third quarter,” Tyler said. “He got kind of a high hip pointer. He’s practiced, and he said he was feeling better. He will be the only one who will be kind of questionable. Everybody else is good to go.”
• • • TO GET THERE — Take Interstate 40 west to the Muskogee Turnpike. Take the Muskogee Turnpike west to Broken Arrow, where it becomes Oklahoma State Highway 51 (the Broken Arrow Expressway). Proceed west on Highway 51 to U.S. 169 (the Mingo Valley Expressway). Take U.S. 169 north to I-244. Take I-244 west to Oklahoma State Highway 11 (the Gilcrease Expressway). Take Highway 11 west to Peoria Avenue. Take Peoria Avenue north to Tulsa McLain High School.
