Black Diamonds knock off Broken Bow

BROKEN BOW — The Sallisaw Black Diamonds were humiliated last year when the Broken Bow Savages came to Perry F. Lattimore Stadium and left town with a 56-14 victory.

When the same two teams met last Friday night at Memorial Stadium, the Black Diamonds not only got a strong second-half performance by the defense, but used some gadgetry and trickiness on offense to rally from a 28-20 halftime deficit to post a 40-30 come-frombehind District 4A-4 road win and stay undefeated in district play.

“It was a big win for us,” Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler said. “That was big for our program to go on the road and beat the No. 3 team in (Class) 4A. Beating them at their place is always great. I thought our kids were focused. We had a little adversity going down on some bus issues, but I thought our kids responded well. We took the opening drive, a 12-play drive, and took seven minutes off the clock. We set the tone early. We played really clean. We didn’t have a whole lot of penalties. We didn’t turn the ball over. We had three more takeaways — an interception (by Logan Bethel), a fumble return (of 15 yards by Brodi Nickell) and recovered an onside kick (by Nickell). Our kids played well on both sides of the ball. We’re glad for the effort, and glad to be 2-0 in the district right now).”

Down one score entering the third quarter, the Black Diamonds (4-1 overall, 2-0 in district play) scored two touchdowns, with the last one of the period putting them ahead for good.

Down 28-26, Sallisaw quarterback Kase Adams hit running back Kenyan Hill on a swing pass, with Hill taking it 24 yards for the score. For the conversion attempt, the Black Diamonds went to a gadget play as Hill took the direct snap, then pitched the ball to wide receiver Tae Muskrat-Flynn, who then threw the two-point conversion pass to Adams to put Sallisaw ahead 34-28 after three quarters.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Black Diamonds decided to try to catch the Savages (4-1, 1-1) off guard. The Black Diamonds did an onside kick, with Nickell making the recovery.

The Black Diamonds then capped off the drive with the second of Adams’ two rushing touchdowns. The conversion failed, but Sallisaw had a two-score lead at 40-28.

“I was proud of the way our kids responded,” Tyler said. “We were down 28-20 at halftime. I thought we came out in the second half. We held them to a three-and-out, then went on a big drive there to get back in the game at 28-26. Then, we took the lead late.”

Meanwhile, the Sallisaw defense pitched a shutout in the second half, after the Savages had a 28-point scoring outburst in the second quarter.

“They have the best athlete in (Class) 4A football in their quarterback (Greydon Howell),” Tyler said. “I thought we did a good job controlling him. He ended up right at 100 yards rushing. I thought our defense played a great game, all but for a seven-minute span where they scored all their points (in the second quarter). (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Richard) Pratt did a good job. We bent but never broke.”

The only points the Savages scored came in the waning seconds of the game as Adams ran around in the end zone to run time off the clock before running out of the end zone for a safety for Broken Bow to make it 40-30.

Although the Savages got the ball back, they did not score once — let alone getting two scores that were needed to either tie or win the game.

“We gave up a safety with 27 seconds left in the game, instead of risking and kicking it to Howell,” Tyler said. “Kase ran around back there in the end zone for about eight seconds. We took the safety. I knew then it was going to be very difficult for them to score 10 points in 20 seconds.”

For the game, Adams accounted for four touchdowns, rushing for 92 yards and two touchdowns while passing for 161 yards and two more TDs.

Jackson Harris rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown, while three different receivers caught TD passes. Caden Blount caught four passes for 45 yards and a touchdown, Nickell, who had nine receptions for 77 yards, caught a 26-yard TD receiver pass from Muskrat-Flynn and Hill caught two passes for 30 yards, including the 24-yard TD swing pass from Adams. Ethan Girdner hit two extra points.

“Again, it was a great team effort,” Tyler said. “I’m proud of our community that showed up down there and the support they gave us by driving 2.5 hours down there.”

Tyler said while it was a great bus ride back over the mountains to Sequoyah County and a celebration of a big road win, it’s time to think about this week’s homecoming opponent, the Tulsa McLain Titans (3-2, 1-1), who outlasted the Stilwell Indians 55-44 last week.

“Like I told the kids (Monday) morning, we have to forget that game. We have to focus on (Tulsa) McLain. McLain is good enough to beat us if we don’t show up Friday night, with homecoming and all the distractions. We have to stay focused on the task at hand, and that’s the McLain Titans rolling in Friday night.”

Friday’s homecoming district game will kick off at 7 p.m. at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium, with homecoming festivities taking place at 6:15 p.m.