Linden overcomes halftime deficit for 49-6 win over ALJ

October 9, 2015October 10, 2015 Jeremy D. Smith A.L. Johnson High School, AHSAA, Alabama, ALJ, Demopolis, Eagles, football, LHS, Linden, Linden High School, Patriots, prep sports

THOMASTON — Linden (3-2, 3-1) found itself trailing A.L. Johnson 6-0 at halftime before answering the call and scoring seven times in the second half for a 49-6 win in Class 1A, Region 4 play.

“We’re proud about the fact that they responded and did their job. Our leaders, guys like Caterious Hinton and Bruce McIntosh and Christopher Robinson, those kind of guys made the game turn like it did,” Linden coach Andro Williams said. “I’m real proud of our guys.”

Desmond Mair scored from a yard out with nine seconds left in the first quarter to put A.L. Johnson up 6-0. That score held until 6:34 remaining in the third quarter when Devonta Poole hauled in a 36-yard touchdown pass from C.J. Robinson to tie the game. Isaiah Scott’s extra point gave Linden the lead at 7-6 and the Patriots never looked back.

With 4:04 left in the third, Robinson scored on a 2-yard run. Justin Jenkins punched it in from five yards out with 50 seconds left in the frame. James Jones added the conversion run to make it 21-6. Jenkins found the end zone again with 9:17 to play when punched it in from three yards out for the 28-6 lead.

Poole returned an interception 23 yards for a score to set it at 35-6. Dequan Charleston hauled in an 82-yard pass from Robinson with 4:55 to go before Deauris Jones scooped and scored from 28 yards out on a fumble.

Linden amassed 407 yards of offense while limiting the Eagles to 87 yards. ALJ fumbled the ball seven times on the night, losing five of them. Linden fumbled three times, losing all three.

Charles Blackmon led Linden with 108 yards rushing on 10 carries. Jones intercepted his second pass in as many games.

The contest was the final region game of the season for Linden, which will have the No. 2 seed in Class 1A, Region 4 and host a first round playoff game against the No. 3 seed from Class 1A, Region 2.

A.L. Johnson (1-5, 1-1) hosts Maplesville next week while Linden welcomes Billingsley for Homecoming.

SCORE BY QUARTER

LHS 0 0 21 28 49

ALJ 6 0 0 0 6

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST 0.09 ALJ – MAIR 1 RUN (KICK FAIL)

3RD POOLE 36 PASS FROM ROBINSON (SCOTT KICK) 6:34

3RD ROBINSON 2 RUN (KICK FAIL) 4:04

3RD JUSTIN JENKINS 5 RUN (JAMES JONES RUN) 0:50

4TH JUSTIN JENKINS 3 RUN (SCOTT KICK) 9:17

4TH POOLE 23 INTERCEPTION TD (SCOTT KICK) 8:50

4TH DEQUAN CHARLESTON 82 PASS FROM ROBINSON (SCOTT KICK) 4:55