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Devils destruct: Maplesville leaves Linden with tough loss
Published Saturday, October 3, 2009
LINDEN – At the end of Friday’s clash of titans, Linden was the team left standing.
The host and Class 1A No. 3 Patriots (5-0) upended region foe, perennial 1A powerhouse and No. 2 Maplesville (4-1) Friday night, 23-14, clearing what most considered
A night that ended with a win for Linden got off to a shaky start. After exchanging punts to open the game, the Patriots muffed a punt on their own 4-yard line, setting up a 4-yard run one-play later by Chris Bailey only three minutes into the contest.
Gang tackle: Linden’s Julian Little is brought down by the Maplesville defense during a Red Devils loss Friday.
With Maplesville driving yet again late in the first, Justin Tensley scooped up a Red Devil fumble and rumbled 35 yards and set up camp at the Maplesville 14.
The drive stalled when Anthony Johnson took an interception 40 yards in the other direction, giving the Red Devils a 14-point lead.
The Maplesville defense clogged the running lanes all night, neutralizing Patriot star tailback Kendarius Fritts. With the ground game struggling, quarterback Anthony Robinson hit Gerald Bruno in stride for a 65-yard touchdown strike to cut the lead in half.
On Linden’s next drive, Robinson connected again, this time with Larente Taylor, on a 55-yard bomb, setting up a 20-yard touchdown run two plays later by Fritts and tying the game at 14 going into the half.
The Maplesville defense held Fritts to 64 yards in the first half, but Robinson erupted for 176 yards through the air.
The defensive struggle continued through the third quarter with both teams exchanging turnovers. An interception by Taylor halted what had been a promising Maplesville drive following a Red Devil fumble recovery.
Linden was the first to put points on the board in the fourth, scoring on a 55-yard interception return by Keiunta Goodwill, giving the Patriots the 20-14 lead after the extra point kick failed.
On Maplesville’s ensuing drive, quarterback Matthew Hamner took a hard hit and was escorted off the field. The Red Devils wanted a penalty, and when no flag was thrown, the wheels started to come off for the Red Devils.
Maplesville drew two personal fouls back-to-back, and after their first play since Hamner was removed from the game resulted in a tackle for a loss, they were hit with another.
Hugging their goal line and forced to punt from 4th-and across the highway, Linden marched the punt slowly down the field before Robinson nailed a 30-yard field goal, giving the Patriots the 23-14 win.
The Patriots defense held the Red Devil passing attack to only 7 yards. Maplesville managed 106 yards on the ground with Hunter McCay’s 43 yards on eight carries leading the way.
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Comments
Posted by nanny444 (anonymous) on October 4, 2009 at 8:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Anybody know anything about Commissioner Tim Mims getting arrested at this game?
Posted by imaplumber (anonymous) on October 5, 2009 at 9:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
yep
Posted by MHSSPORTSMOM (anonymous) on October 5, 2009 at 10:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It is really bad when a football player gets hurt and the only thing people want to know is if someone got arrested or not, no one wants to know about the player or how he is doing!!!!!!!!
Posted by imaplumber (anonymous) on October 5, 2009 at 3:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
From the looks of the hit, the kid should be okay. I hope he is. It was a pretty bad lick but it wasn't as bad as some others I've seen.
That doesn't make it any less severe. I still hope the kid's okay and can play this weekend.
He's a tough kid from what I know of him.
Posted by unclesam (anonymous) on October 5, 2009 at 5:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Tim was handcuffed and beaten by four black ploice officers. After he got out of jail he had to go to the ER room, than today he went for a MRI on his back and neck. A Maplesville policeman had to get than off of Tim.
Posted by MHSSPORTSMOM (anonymous) on October 5, 2009 at 11:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The problem Friday night was when a player was speared by helmet to helmet contact, which is considered by ahsaa rules, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, that resulted in the player having head trama. Maplesville had been called on many penalties before this and then the officals didn't even attempt to protect our players by calling Linden on this. Linden showed even more disregard for the injured player by their band continuing to play while our injured player lied on the field and the announcer made the comment that we have a "Tebow" on the field. This caused outrage by the Maplesville Fans. Instead of the officals trying to calm the situation, a linden police officer enters the field and puts his hand on his pistol like he was going to draw his weapon while our children were on the field. The officals, Linden High School, and The Linden Police Department displayed an absolute lack of class in this situation. I hope and pray that this is not what the Marengo County School system is teaching their children.
Posted by imaplumber (anonymous) on October 6, 2009 at 8:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
MHSSPORTSMOM,
I was at this game and most of what you have posted is not true or innacurate.
1. The band did not play while the injured player was on the field. They played a brief tune after the hit but stopped once the refs cleared the pile and it became obvious the player was hurt.
2. The announcer never referred to a "Tebow" on the field. He announced the injury but I never heard him say anything about Tebow.
3. The play was not "dirty". The QB was falling down. The tackler was leading with his shoulder. Their heads met. He wasn't spearing him, thus there wasn't a penalty for spearing.
4. Linden isn't a Marengo County School, it's a Linden City School.
5. I don't know why the cop had his hand on the gun, but I did see that. I assume it's because he was running and he was keeping his hand on it so it didn't bounce up and down on his belt. I don't know that to be why but I didn't think it was in a threatening manner.
This was a pretty good football game until it spiraled out of control, basically right after this hit. I think everyone has lost sight of that.
Posted by alive (anonymous) on October 6, 2009 at 9:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So how are the two young men who crashed helmets? Did they also get MRIs? I worry about what we put our young people through - all in the name of sports. The consequences of head injuries often do now show up for many years.
Posted by mhsfan (anonymous) on October 6, 2009 at 10:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Imaplumber, it is obvious you have internet access, since I am wondering if you were at the same game that I was, please watch the video again at www.yourschoollive.com.
In addition to hearing the band play, and watching the "classy" Linden football team cheer and clap as if they had scored a TD when our QB was hit illegally you can also hear the Linden fans screaming "get up boy!"
It is easy to see where the Linden boys learned their behavior. Even as our QB was being loaded into the vehicle to go to the hospital, the Linden football team, on their bus, was screaming obscenities out their windows!
Posted by MHSSPORTSMOM (anonymous) on October 6, 2009 at 10:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If you go back and watch the film you will see the cop stand ing on the field with all the football players with his hand on his gun, this was after he came on the field. What do you call that. It does not matter what was going on ,I do not want a trigger happy young cop on the field with any of the kids. As far as the helmet to helmet hit, you know as well as I do that was spearing. And you can also hear the announcer saying that we have a Tebow on the field. It was a good football game until the end. But when you have a kid on the field that does not know anyone and can not feel his arms, I think it is the refs job to call for the paramedics but they did not. I don't care what school you are from but with that kind of hit and a kid tring to get up and then going back down the paramedics should be called. These are kids and the refs are there to protect our kids and they did not. No one lost sight of the game and what was going on. The only thing I will say is that the refs did not even know how to call a game. A deadball penalty can not be declined. I don't care what county Linden School is in, but were you standing on the out side of the gates when the Linden Football players were leaving on the bus? If you were then you would have seen and heard what I did as the bus was leaving. The ball team was hanging out the windows of the bus and cussing the Maplesville fans in the parking lot. I have never heard such talk coming from a bus of young football players. I only hope that the coachs were not on this bus letting them act in this manner.
Posted by imaplumber (anonymous) on October 6, 2009 at 2:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
mhsfan,
We were at the same game but it's obvious we see things a different way.
Everything the band, the school, the coach, the principal, the cops and the City of Linden did was just to be inhospitable to you. I get it. I'm okay with that.
You're going to see it how you want to see it and I'm going to see it how I want to see it.
The biggest difference is I just went to go watch a football game. I'm not a big fan of either school. Don't have a kid in either school and I didn't graduate from either school.
By your login, I am by far the more impartial of the two.
And as for how unsportsmanlike the team is. Maplesville got tagged with 3 conduct penalties in about 5 minutes. I don't remember how many Linden got, which means it was probably less than three. I know Maplesville's penalties don't count because "they were defending their teammate" or some other B/S. Fact is, they racked up -45 yards through poor coaching and losing their composure.
As far as what can be proven, Maplesville was clearly the most unsportsmanlike team on the field.
You can argue all you want to. I really don't care.
I hope the quarterback is okay and you can't blame the school system for Tim Mims being arrested.
Posted by MHSALUM (anonymous) on October 7, 2009 at 7:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
IMAPLUMBER...as I said on the other post...with fans like you, who needs enemies in Linden? Geez!
Posted by MHSALUM (anonymous) on October 9, 2009 at 12:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
FYI...just got the word that Maplesville High School Athletics has been cleared of all charges and allegations that were filed with the AHSAA by Linden!
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