Sallisaw falls in home regular-season finales to Hilldale

The Sallisaw Black Diamonds soccer team suffered its first home loss of the season, and second straight District 4A-4 defeat, Tuesday night at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium as they fell 4-2 to the visiting Hilldale Hornets.

The Lady Hornets opened the night by stinging the Lady Diamonds 5-1.

In the boys’ match, the Black Diamonds (9-2 overall, 4-2 in district play) fell behind 1-0 on a goal from Hayden Pickering with 18:06 left before halftime, but just 39 seconds later Christian Morales scored the match-tying goal off a throw-in by Adrien Romero.

Wes Rodriguez scored the go-ahead goal for the Black Diamonds to put them ahead 2-1 with 11 minutes exactly remaining in the first half.

However, the Hornets (11-1, 6-0) tied the match at 2-all on Liam Sargent’s goal with 4:16 remaining before halftime, then took the lead for good on a goal by Valence Espinoza with just 1:12 left in the first half to give Hilldale a 3-2 lead at the break. Hilldale scored the only goal of the second half.

In defeat, Josh Taylor had 12 saves in goal, not to mention the other two Hilldale shots which hit the goal post in the first half.

In the girls’ match, the Lady Diamonds (5-6, 1-5) took a 1-0 lead on Kyra Taylor’s penalty kick goal with 25:05 left in the first half.

However, Hilldale’s Gabby Dover scored the match-tying goal with 1:13 remaining before halftime to knot the match at 1-all.

In the second half, the Lady Hornets (7-6, 4-2) stung the Lady Diamonds with four second-half goals as the final 40 minutes was “The Gabby Dover Show” as she scored a hat trick in the second half, with the other second-half goal scored by Grace Nail.

In defeat, Jocelyn Rivera made 15 saves on the evening.

The regular-season finales will be this evening on the road against the Wagoner Lady Bulldogs and ’Dogs, with the girls’ match at 5 p.m. and the boys’ contest at 7 p.m.