Black Diamonds celebrate Homecoming with rout of Tulsa McLain, welcome Glenpool on Thursday

The Sallisaw Black Diamonds celebrated Homecoming with a 45-7 rout of the Tulsa McLain Titans on Friday night at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium to run their winning streak to five games.

“I thought our kids played good,” Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler said. “We played hard the whole night. We had just that one drive where we had to punt, and we turned the ball over driving there in the third quarter. I thought we played really well.”

Jackson Harris, who was co-Homecoming king with teammate Jace Holman as each helped crown and give flowers to homecoming queen Sydney Weedon prior to the game, got the Black Diamonds (5-1, 3-0 in District 4A-4) going with a 27-yard touchdown run with 9:40 left in the first quarter. Ethan Girdner’s extra point put Sallisaw ahead 7-0 after a period.

The second quarter was where the Black Diamonds got some separation from the Titans (3-3, 1-2), and it all happened during the latter half of the period.

The Black Diamonds doubled their lead to 14-0 at the 6:44 mark of the second quarter after Kase Adams connected with Keaton Brant on an 8-yard touchdown pass. Girdner added the PAT.

The Sallisaw defense went to work as Cade Tate blocked a punt and recovered the ball at the Tulsa McLain 16 yard line with 5:38 left before halftime.

Just 59 seconds later, Adams took the snap and went into the end zone from four yards out. Girdner’s extra point made it 21-0 in Sallisaw’s favor with 4:37 remaining in the first half.

Hunter Smith got in on the block-punt parade as he blocked a Tulsa McLain punt, which went out of bounds at the Tulsa McLain 16 yard line with 1:48 remaining before halftime.

Just as with Tate’s blocked punt, the Black Diamonds took advantage of Smith’s blocked punt as they scored on a 12-yard TD pass from Adams to Brodi Nickell who got into the near corner of the end zone with 49 seconds left in the first half. Girdner made it 4-for-4 in PATs to put Sallisaw ahead 28-0 at halftime.

The Titans got their lone score of the night with 4:14 remaining in the third quarter. However, when they got the ball back off a Sallisaw fumble, their ensuing drive ended with the third blocked punt of the game for the Black Diamonds as Harley Schuh blocked the Titans’ punt, then scooped up the loose ball and went to the Tulsa McLain 9-yard line with 2:57 left in the quarter.

“We saw some things in special teams that we thought we could go block some punts,” Tyler said. “(Assistant) Coach (Kiah) Smith and those guys did a great job of setting that up all week. Those turned the momentum back in our favor.

Just 30 seconds later, Harris scored his second touchdown of the night on a 2-yard run with 2:27 remaining in the period. Girdner’s fifth extra point increased Sallisaw’s advantage to 35-7 after three quarters.

Harris, who rushed for 113 yards, completed the hat trick of TD runs as he took it in from eight yards out. Girdner’s sixth PAT put Sallisaw ahead 42-7 with 9:22 left to play. The score was set up by Gunner Griffey’s 51-yard run to put the Black Diamonds at the Tulsa McLain 2-yard line.

The game’s scoring was capped by Girdner’s 22-yard field goal with 2:11 remaining in the game.

Entering Friday night’s game, the Sallisaw defense had recorded 19 takeaways through the previous four games which just so happened to coincide with the winning streak. The Black Diamonds added one to that total as Levi Scavo recovered a fumble with 1:42 remaining to play.

The Black Diamonds will have a short week as they will return to action at 7 p.m. Thursday with a home district game against the Glenpool Warriors at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium.

The Warriors (0-6, 0-3) are still seeking their first win for new coach, and former Poteau assistant football and head girls golf coach Payton Werner, whose father Greg, who guided the Pirates to the 2019 Class 4A state title, is one of his assistant coaches. Two of their losses have been by one score and a third loss was by two scores.

Tyler said Thursday night’s opponent may be the best winless team the Black Diamonds will face all year.

“Their record is kind of deceiving,” he said. “They’re a very good 0-6 football team. They’re very physical on both sides of the ball. They have one of the best defensive lineman we will have seen up to this point. They get off the ball well. They run to the ball well. Coach Werner is doing a great job with them. It may not show on the scoreboard, but he’s got those guys playing hard. You can see how they’ve improved every week. We definitely have our hands full with all the stuff they’re going to do. It’s not complicated, but they do a lot of stuff. Every game is a big game. Glenpool is the next team on the schedule. We have to get focused on them and play them on Thursday night.”

The Black Diamonds will need to play sound defense and offense to give them the best chance to run the winning streak to six games and stay undefeated in district play.

“We have to get off the field (on defense),” Tyler said. “They’re going to limit our possessions. We have to score points when we have the opportunity. Offensively, we have to score and put some points on the board. Defensively, we have to stop their run game. They’re going to try to play physical football, and we’ve got to match them physicality wise.”

All Black Diamonds are healthy with the exception of running back Matthew McGrew, who is nursing a shoulder injury.