MILLRY &8212; The Linden High School Patriots handed the Millry Wildcats their first loss of the season Friday night on the road with a 43-6 win.

Linden High School head coach Andro Williams said his group was going to come into the game and try to run their game plan. The tried-and-true method worked, and, with an extra effort from the Patriot defense, Linden played their way into the third round of the state playoff.

The unit held a dominant Millry team to only ten first downs in the game, stamping out the run and the pass. The Wildcats ran 25 times in the game but only managed to pick up 49 yards on the ground and their top rusher lead the way with 25 yards. In the air, Millry was shutdown, completing only eight of 22 attempts for 58 yards while the Patriot secondary complete four of their own from the Wildcat quarterback.

The Patriot offense wasn&8217;t quite as hampered as their opponent, however. The group put up 398 yards, with triple digits on the ground and in the air.

The Patriots rushed 43 times for 279 yards, lead by Maurice Tate who had 21 carries for 172 yards and three touchdowns. The group passes for 119 yards off of five completions on 15 attempts, with and interception.

One of Linden&8217;s biggest downfalls in the game, much to the advantage of Millry, was penalties. The group was flagged six times for 55 yards.

Scoring for the group was a three-man show. Tate found the end zone off a 1-yard run with 6:22 in the first (the game opener), a 49-yarder with 4:40 into the second and a 38-yard scramble with 3:44 in the third. Lakendrick Rogers, too, found the scoring strip on offense off a 24-yard pass from Ajalon Bruno to wrap up end zone trips for the day and on special teams with 1:17 in the first quarter of a punt block and recovery in the end zone. The Patriots scoring was wrapped up by a 15-yard pass from Jermaine Black to Sean Richardson with 8.2 seconds left in the second.

Millry&8217;s sole touchdown came with 56.5 seconds left in the first quarter off a 47-yard pass.