Linden High’s Kevin Green fielded the opening kickoff against the Keith High Bears on Friday night in Orrville, and ran the ball up the right sideline all the way back for a touchdown.

The collective groan from the fans in the Keith (1-1) stands was the first of many as the No. 4 Linden Patriots (2-0) defeated the Bears 49-8 in the first region game of the season.

“It was a tough loss,” Keith head coach Anthony Lumpkin said.

Big plays on special teams put the Bears behind early, even though Keith’s defense held the Patriots to just 23-yards in the first quarter.

“Special teams put us in a bad position, and a good team like Linden, you can’t give them a short field,” Lumpkin said. “They are going to capitalize on it. Our thing coming in was to make them drive the length of the field, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

In addition to the opening kickoff return touchdown, the Bears allowed a 65-yard punt return touchdown and a 50-yard return by Linden’s Graderius Brown in the first quarter.

Brown, who also plays quarterback, let his running back Douglas Johnson get the final touchdown of the first quarter on a six-yard run after his second big return of the night.

“We came out kind of sluggish,” Linden head coach Demetrice Jackson said. “We couldn’t get much going on offense because our first two touchdowns came from special teams. But as we made a couple of adjustments that got things going, the offense became a whole lot better.”

By the time the second quarter started, Keith trailed 21-0 and the offense couldn’t get anything going.

Linden’s defense was clogging up the running lanes for Keith running backs Ledell Jackson and Levi Thomas. The Bears top-two backs combined for only 27 yards and no touchdowns.

Quarterback Jared Edwards didn’t fare much better on the ground either. Between the sacks and fumbled snap recoveries, Edwards only netted two rushing yards in the game.

He completed five of his nine pass attempts, but the Patriots secondary held the Bears to only 23-yards through the air.

Costly mistakes also hurt the Bears’ chances. The team had eight false start penalties and five fumbles, two of which were recovered by the Patriots.

Keith’s biggest play of the night was an 80-yard kickoff return touchdown by Kendarius Perry to start the second half. Edwards then scrambled untouched into the end zone two convert the two-point play and cut the lead to 29-8 at the start of the third quarter.

“Coach just told us to not give up and keep working, so I didn’t,” Perry said. “We kept fighting, but we have to work on stuff on Monday.”

The big play provided the Bears with some momentum as the team got a defensive stop on Linden’s first series of the half.

Keith’s Derrell Benjamin sacked Brown twice, for losses of 11 and 4-yards, and forced the Patriots to punt on fourth-and-26.

However, the momentum was short lived, and the Patriots went on to score three more times in the second half. Once the offense opened up, the Patriots let Brown flourish in the passing game.

“Brown is a hard-worker,” Jackson said. “Tonight, he told me before the game started he would give me a better game than he did last week, and that is what his effort showed tonight.”

Brown had a highlight reel game against the Bears. Not only did he have an impact in the return game, but he also completed 8-of-13 passes for 138-yards and two touchdowns. Brown rushed for 21-yards and two touchdowns in the game as well.

“It opened up for us when our offensive coordinator started opening up the passing game a little bit more,” Brown said. “[Keith] gave us a run at first, but we picked it up. I saw a lot of things that I could do. We made the calls and made it happen. We just had a good game overall.”

The region loss puts Keith at 0-1 in the region standings. Next Friday, the Bears face their second region opponent Ellwood Christian Academy at Memorial Park in Selma.

“We gotta clean up these penalties. We’ve got to stop making the mental mistakes,” Lumpkin said. “If we do that, we’re going to be alright.”