Sallisaw, Gore, Gans, Vian Notch Wins

Sallisaw 51, Roland 6

ROLAND - Bubba Philpot powered the Sallisaw ground game as the Black Diamonds opened their season with a convincing victory in a non-district clash at Ranger Stadium.

Philpot rambled for 334 yards on 21 carries and scored on runs of six, 62, 34 and 83 yards as Sallisaw cruised to the win.

Roland stayed close in the opening quarter with a Chase Quickel-to-Josh Barnes touchdown pass that kept the Rangers within 7-6, but Philpot answered with a long touchdown run moments later to swing momentum back to the Black Diamonds (1-0).

Joe Branham, Matt Hancock and Shane Barnes also ran for Sallisaw touchdowns and Dustin Edgmon booted a field goal for the Black Diamonds.

Gore 35, Picher 13

PICHER - Jordan Andrews ran for 111 yards and Damon Sheffield scored three touchdowns as the Pirates rolled to the season-opening win at Picher-Cardin.

Sheffield broke the game open in the third period with back-to-back plays that extended the Gore lead to 28-0. He scored on a 22-yard run and on the next play, intercepted a pass and ran it back 52 yards.

Gore head coach Richard Moseley was thrilled to see his team get off to a winning start this season.

"We had to go the first seven games before we had 35 points last year, so I'm real glad to see us put some points on the board tonight," said Moseley.

Vian 54, Westville 6

WESTVILLE - The Wolverines went on the road and came back with a blowout win over Westville on Friday night at Akin-Langley Field.

Vian dominated the non-district contest to move to 1-0 on the season.

Gans 48, Arkoma 0

GANS - The Gans Grizzlies built a big lead in the first half and then scored two quick touchdowns after the break to roll to a big win over Arkoma on Friday night in a mercy rule-shortened contest at Grizzly Field.

Gans took a 32-0 lead into the second half and, on the second play of the third period, Jake Knapp busted loose for 56-yard touchdown run. Nick Woodruff passed to Kameron Pastore for the conversion.

The Grizzly defense stopped Arkoma on a fourth-down play at the Gans 19 to set up the final score of the night. A few plays later, back-up running back Danny Proctor went 75 yards around the left side to bring the 45-point mercy rule into effect with 6:19 left in the third period.

Gans moves to 1-0 with the non-district win, while Arkoma falls to 0-1.

Foyil 37, Central 6

FOYIL - The Class B fifth-ranked Panthers took advantage of five Central turnovers to fight off a challenge from the Tigers on Friday night.

Stevie Morris scored on a 28-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to pull Central within 16-6, but Foyil scored three unanswered touchdowns to seal the win.

For a complete report on each of these games, be sure to pick up the Thursday, Sept. 8, print edition of Your TIMES. To see photos from the Sallisaw/Roland and Gans/Arkoma games, click on the Photo-Gallery link on the left side of this page.