Linden notches road win over 3A Hillcrest-Evergreen

Linden opened its season in resounding fashion Friday night, hitting the road to down a 2015 Class 3A semifinalist. The Patriots fell behind early and proceeded to shut out Hillcrest-Evergreen the rest of the way en route to a 32-7 win.

Less than 90 seconds into the game, Brian Nettles went over the top to Joshua Jackson for a 62-yard touchdown pass and Hillcrest snagged a quick 7-0 lead.

Undaunted, Linden proceeded to do what it has done so many times during the 10 seasons that Andro Williams has been at the helm of the program. The Patriots relied upon suffocating defense and a balanced offense to overpower Hillcrest.

“Hillcrest has a good football team, a lot of depth. They dress out about 70 kids,” Andro Williams said. We showed some resiliency by getting down early, giving up a big play and not deviating from who we are. We came back and did things we need to do to help ourselves.”

Eric Jenkins scored on a 22-yard run with 6:30 left in the first quarter. Three minutes later, Dequan Charleston found the end zone form 15 yards out to give Linden a lead it would never lose.

Dearius Jones added a 3-yard scoring run in the second quarter. Davontae Poole hauled in a 49-yard touchdown strike from C.J. Robinson to make it 26-7 with 9:19 left in the third quarter. Isaiah Scott capped the scoring with a 1-yard run.

“The main thing we want to do is win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and we did that,” Williams said.

The Patriots used 12 ball carriers in the game, amassing 260 yards on 50 carries. The defense established itself early and often in the ground game, holding Hillcrest to 48 yards on 28 carries.

Linden also managed 126 yards through the air on 6 of 10 passing.

Following the 62-yard touchdown pass, Linden surrendered only 146 yards for the duration of the contest.

Graderius Brown paced the defensive unit with 10 tackles , two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Justin Jenkins had eight tackles and two sacks. Poole had nine tackles and a sack. Collectively, Linden recorded seven sacks on the night.

“I was real pleased with our defense overall. We had a big defensive stand inside the 15 where we bowed up and stopped them twice,” Williams said.

Linden opens region play next week at home against Fruitdale.

“We’re going to try to take them one game at a time in region play. We’re going to worry about us. We’re not going to worry about anybody else,” Williams said.