Black Diamonds entertain Stilwell for Senior Night

After the Sallisaw Black Diamonds ended an eightgame losing streak to the Poteau Pirates last Friday night at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium, second-year Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler is concerned how his team will come out tonight when the Black Diamonds (7-1 overall, 4-1 in District 4A-4) entertain the Stilwell Indians (1-7, 0-5) for Senior Night at 7 p.m.

“As a coach, coming off an emotional win last week, it’s a big concern in the back of our minds of not playing with the same intensity,” Tyler said. “It is Senior Night. Hopefully, our seniors got a lot of motivation to go out there. They know what happened last year during Senior Night. We were up 42-28 against Fort Gibson with four minutes left in the game and got beat. Anything can happen. We have to come play (tonight) against a decent Stilwell team.”

The win over Poteau last week keeps the Black Diamonds in line for not just a home playoff game, but the district championship — outright or sharing it. “They’re all big wins, but it definitely was a big win,” Tyler said about last week’s overtime win over Poteau. “Our kids battled through some adversity. They persevered all night long. They never quit. They kept playing hard all night long. We were able to tie it late in the fourth quarter and get the game into overtime and able to win the game. It was a great win. Anytime you can beat Poteau, which was the first time in eight years it happened, it’s good. Defensively, I thought we played great last week to hold Poteau to seven points. Hats off to our defensive staff, (defensive coordinator) coach (Richard) Pratt, those guys (defensive coaches) and our kids for keeping us in the ball game on that side of the ball.”

Entering tonight, there is a three-way tie for first place with Sallisaw, Broken Bow and Ada. Currently due to points, Sallisaw is third if the playoffs were to begin tonight. If Sallisaw wins out with tonight’s home game against Stilwell and next week’s road game at Ada, and Poteau can knock off Broken Bow next week, it would give the Black Diamonds the District 4A-4 title outright. A win tonight definitely will clinch a playoff berth.

“It still sets things up that have to happen to win the district,” Tyler said. “If we win (tonight against Stilwell), we’re definitely going to clinch a playoff spot, and we’ll finish no worse than third (place). We have to take care of Stilwell to set up a big game with Ada the following week.”

The only win for the Indians this season came in Week 2, a 21-20 victory at Keys. Since then, they have lost six straight and have been outscored in those six games 232-80. However, Tyler said they have the potential to be a formidable foe tonight.

“Their quarterback is pretty good,” he said. “I think he’s a three-year starter there. They have a good receiver in the (Brayton) Carter kid. The (Chase) Benham kid at tailback does a good job running downhill. They do a good job. They’re big and physical. They’re a typical Stilwell football team. They’ve had some bad breaks throughout the year. Their record doesn’t indicate it, but they are a good football team.”

A big key for the Black Diamonds will be to play with the same intensity as a week ago, and have some better offensive success than against Poteau.

“We have to play with a lot of momentum (from the Poteau win) and enthusiasm,” Tyler said. “We have to play with the same intensity we had last week. We have to do a lot better job offensively. We didn’t bust out for very many yards. We have to get some (offensive) drives together. We talked about not playing behind the chains. I think we had four false start penalties (against Poteau) that put us at first and 15. Against good football teams, you’re not going to be able to overcome that — it’s hard to do. So, we have to start out hot. We have to go get after it. We have to do a better job offensively.”

Tyler pointed out to the players last week that there is only one statistic that counts.

“At the end of the day I told the kids there’s only one statistic that matters — that was us winning the game (last week against Poteau),” he said. “As long as we have more points at the end of the game, that’s all that matters.”

The Black Diamonds will be healthy for tonight’s game, and better news is on the horizon.

“We’re all healthy going into this game,” Tyler said. “We should get (sophomore wide receiver Brodie (Nickell) back next week. He started practicing Monday. He did some light activity. He started lifting and running. He was no contact this week, but come (next) Monday he’s full go. It will be good to get him back on the field next week. We’ve had other guys step in. It’s been good having depth at that position. Just having his presence back out on the field and him being back out there is good. I know he’s ready to get back out there. It will be good to see him back in uniform next week.”