Sallisaw senior says Black Diamonds ready for No. 1 Elgin

The Sallisaw Black Diamonds will look to do something no one has this season, hand the top-ranked Elgin Owls a loss tonight in the Class 4A state quarterfinals.

“We’re very anxious,” Sallisaw senior player Beau Anderson said. “I honestly think we have a very good shot at it (upsetting No. 1 Elgin). I think if we put our heads together and go at it, I think we got it.”

A defensive stop on an overtime twopoint conversion attempt by Grove to win the game enabled the Black Diamonds to prevail 27-26 over the Ridgerunners in last week’s Class 4A opening-round playoff game. Anderson said all the Black Diamonds were asking God to help things go their way.

“It was nothing but spectacular really to just see that,” he said. “I really think it was a miracle really. We were doing a lot of praying on the sidelines, I know that. Watching that (final two-point conversion), we were praying for being grateful. It was a very exciting moment.”

Now, the Black Diamonds are three wins away from the Class 4A state title and a gold ball in the trophy case. Anderson said the players can feel it.

“You can sense it,” the Sallisaw senior football player said. “I think if we do what we did (the last time after a loss), a four-game winning streak, I think we honestly have a good shot at it. I think it will be good.”

However, for the rest of the playoff journey, the Black Diamonds will be without senior linebacker Aiden Ruiz, who was injured in an automobile accident on Sunday and had surgery to repair the injury. At Wednesday afternoon’s Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce Monthly Membership Luncheon at Carl Albert State College’s Stites Center, Chamber

President Marley Abell said that the recovery time for Ruiz, who will miss the rest of the season, likely will be close to a year.

Anderson said Ruiz’s teammates miss him, and they’re going to play the rest of the postseason games for him.

“He is a very big part of the team,” he said. “We’re grateful he’s OK. We’re trying to keep our heads in it. We know if he were here, he would really want us to keep our heads in it and go at it.”

Anderson said there would be no better way to end his high school career than for the Black Diamonds to win the Class 4A state championship game, which is slated for 1 p.m. Dec. 14 at the University of Central Oklahoma’s Chad Richison Stadium.

“That would be nothing but being very grateful,” Anderson said. “That would be the perfect senior year right there — a state championship. That would be really great. I would be very grateful.”