By David Seeley
The Sequoyah County Times
POTEAU — The District 4A-4 opener for the Sallisaw Black Diamonds was a thrilling 36-35 come-from-behind home win over the then-No. 1 Broken Bow Savages on Sept. 25 at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium.
Fast forward to Friday night, the regular-season finale and last district game of 2026 against the host Poteau Pirates at Costner Stadium. It was Broken Bow all over again.
Sallisaw put Gunner Griffey in at quarterback for the final three plays of the game-winning drive. Griffey scored a 1-yard touchdown run with 50 seconds left in the game to propel the Black Diamonds to a come-from-behind 24-21 victory over the Pirates.
“They had a lot of faith in me, and I got it done,” Griffey said. “It just feels like magic. It felt good.”
The Black Diamonds (10-0 overall, 7-0 in district play) capped a perfect regular season.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Griffey said. “I didn’t think we had it in us. It’s surprising.”
“It’s hard to go 10-0 in this district,” Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler said. “I’m proud of these guys. I’m proud of their effort. I’m proud of our coaches. I’m proud of everybody. We’re very thankful.”
Now, the second season, otherwise known as the Class 4A playoff, has arrived. For the third straight season, the Black Diamonds will meet the Grove Ridgerunners at 7 p.m. next Friday at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium.
“I’m ready for it (the Class 4A playoffs),” Griffey said. “I think we’ll win it all.”
Two years ago at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium, the Black Diamonds beat the Ridgerunners 27-26 in the opening-round playoff game when Grove went for two points late in the game and was stopped.
Last year at Grove, the Ridgerunners avenged that loss with a 35-14 home win to begin the 2025 postseason.
“We’re going to get Grove at home next week,” Tyler said. “It will be three years that we’ve played them in the first round. We’re going to get after it, and we’ll go from there.”
Leading 21-17, the Pirates (6-4, 4-3) looked ready to put away the game and spoil Sallisaw’s perfect season.
Thanks to two false start penalties deep in the Sallisaw end of the field, Poteau quarterback Levi Taylor punted the ball out of shotgun formation and pinned the Black Diamonds at their own 6-yard line with 4:56 left to play.
Aided by a 29-yard run by senior starting quarterback Kase Adams, the Black Diamonds went 94 yards in 11 plays, with the last three plays putting the ball into Griffey’s hands off the center snap. Griffey plunged into the end zone with 50 seconds left. Cito Morales hit his third extra point, kicking into a stiff wind, to put Sallisaw ahead 24-21.
“When you have this many seniors who have been around for a long time, they were going to will us to victory,” Tyler said. “We had some things going there. We had some different formations that were giving them some fits. We just line up. We knew we had plenty of time. We had confidence in our kids. We got rolling there, and we got them back on their heels. We drove down and scored.”
After calling two timeouts while on defense when the Black Diamonds were inside the Poteau 10-yard line, the Pirates got the ball with 44 seconds at their own 41-yard line.
Taylor had two straight low snaps that made him go down low to field the ball, so low in fact his knee hit the ground both times, resulting in lost yardage, but more importantly time was ticking off the clock. Ultimately, the time ran out the Pirates, and the Black Diamonds went down in front of the scoreboard for a team photograph showing the final score of Sallisaw 24, Poteau 21.
The Sallisaw defense set up the game’s first score as defensive lineman Cade Tate recovered a fumble at the Poteau 31-yard line with 9:18 left in the first quarter.
Although the Black Diamonds drove as deep as the Poteau 15-yard line, the drive stalled. Morales was called in to hit a 32-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead with exactly seven minutes remaining in the period.
The Sallisaw defense struck once more as Calvin Kilpatrick picked off Taylor at the Poteau 32-yard line with 6:35 remaining in the quarter.
The Black Diamonds missed out on a TD when Adams and Griffey just missed connections in the end zone. The Sallisaw drive stalled, and the Pirates got possession off a shanked punt at their own 17-yard line with 5:01 left in the period.
After the Sallisaw defense forced Poteau to punt, the Black Diamonds got the ball back at the Poteau 48-yard line with 3:27 left in the quarter.
Thanks to a 31-yard run by Adams and an unsportsmanlike penalty on the Pirates, the Black Diamonds went 48 yards in three plays as Adams took it in from six yards out with 2:40 remaining in the quarter. Morales hit the PAT to increase Sallisaw’s advantage to 10-0 after a period.
On Poteau’s next possession, the Pirates had to punt again, but punter Kenyon Bledsoe initially tried a fake punt, resulting in a wounded duck that landed in the arms of Griffey who returned it 15 yards to the Poteau 31-yard line with 58 seconds left in the first quarter.
However, the Black Diamonds could not take advantage of the field position and turned it over on downs at the Poteau 34-yard line with 11:43 left before halftime.
The Pirates went 68 yards in 10 plays as sophomore receiver Evan Adams hauled in Taylor’s 10-yard touchdown pass. Nic Burgos hit the extra point to cut Sallisaw’s lead to 10-7 with 8:50 remaining in the first half.
The Black Diamonds responded with a 10-play, 80-yard drive that was capped by a Kenyan Adams 16-yard TD run. Morales hit the PAT to up the Sallisaw advantage to 17-7 with 4:51 remaining before halftime. The two key plays on the drive were a 21-yard pass from Adams to Keaton Brant and a 9-yard pass from Adams to Hill.
Back came the Pirates as they went 68 yards in five plays as wide receiver Logan Waymire caught a 34-yard touchdown pass from Taylor with 3:21 left in the first half. Burgos hit the extra point to cut the Poteau deficit to 17-14 at halftime.
The Black Diamonds were trying to get the momentum going into halftime. Thanks to a 38-yard run by Hill and a 17-yard pass from Adams to senior wide receiver Brodi Nickell, Sallisaw found itself in prime scoring territory. However, on a 25-yard pass from Adams to Nickell that would have put the ball inside the Poteau 10-yard line, Sallisaw was called for holding negating the red zone opportunity. The Black Diamonds ended up punting, and the Pirates ran out the clock to send the teams into the locker rooms with Sallisaw leading 17-14.
After a scoreless third quarter, the Pirates got possession after stopping the Black Diamonds on downs after they drove as deep as the Poteau 17-yard line but got nothing out of it.
The Pirates went 67 yards in 14 plays, including converting once on fourth down, to take their first and only lead of the night as Ryder Waddell plunged into the end zone from two yards out. Burgos connected on the PAT to put Sallisaw ahead 21-17 with 10:37 left to play, setting up the dramatic game-winning drive for Sallisaw.
There were some concerning moments in the game for Tyler, despite the late-second, game-winning drive.
“We shot ourselves in the foot early,” Tyler said. “We dropped two touchdown passes where we overthrew them twice. We had chances there. Right before halftime, we had a chance to get down to the (Poteau) inside the 10 (yard line that gets called back on a penalty). Our center snaps (the ball) on something (and snaps gets past Adams), and that got us out of scoring position there. We had two chances at interceptions. We have to continue to get better. We’re glad and very pleased with the win.”