Linden High School and Marengo High School both played on the road in their jamboree games Friday night.

In the battle of top 10 1A teams, the Linden Patriots defeated the Pickens County Tornadoes 46-35 Friday night.

Linden trailed 20-14 at halftime, but came out hot in the third and scored 21 points. Coach Andro Williams felt like his team was in control of the game, but a deep pass over the top brought the Tornadoes within six points in the fourth quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, a Linden player had the ball stripped from him, and the Tornadoes scooped and scored to go up by two.

With just seconds left in the game, Linden capped off a drive with a touchdown to take back the lead, and, on the final desperation play by the Tornadoes, the quarterback fumbles on a sack and Linden scoops the ball and scores as the clock ran out.

“I am proud of how our guys reacted to the situation,” Williams said. “We fell behind late and responded well. It showed a lot of character in our guys.”

Marengo High School traveled to Millry High School to take on the Class 2A Wildcats. The Panthers were shut out, losing the game 40-0, but head coach Dredrick Bell felt like his players played well.

“Our biggest issue is depth,” he said. “They had about 40 guys on their team, while we just had 16. Conditioning will be a big part of practice next week. We tackled well throughout the game, and it was one of those games where the score doesn’t indicate how the game really went.”

Bell added that they have to minimize their mistakes, as they also had several drive-killing penalties that were mostly just mental errors.

Linden’s first game of the season at Leroy High School next week, while Marengo will travel to Southern Choctaw to take on the Indians.