LINDEN — Billingsley came into Linden seeking to gain ground on the top of the Class 1A Region 3 standings, but a couple of slips and a solid Linden defense cut the Bears short, 27-26.

Jamar Hopson, who had 19 rushes for 169 yards and 136 rushing yards in the second half, took the opening kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown, getting the Bears (3-2 overall, 3-2 Class 1A Region 3) off to a good start.

Linden was able to tie the score when Maurice Tate took an eight-yard run into the endzone, knotting the game at 7-7 with 2:21 left in the first quarter.

The Patriots (5-0, 4-0 1A-3) took their first lead of the game when Tate ran 16 yards for a touchdown, giving LHS a 14-7 lead with 7:02 left in the second quarter.

The Bears bounced back, as quarterback Mario Reese found Jay Tyus on a 63-yard touchdown strike, retying the game at 14-14 with 1:06 left in the first half.

Billingsley scored first again in the second half, moving the ball in its first drive of the half and scoring when Hopson took an 11-yard run into the end zone. He misfired on the extra-point kick, but the Bears had a 20-14 lead with 10 minutes left in the third quarter.

Linden scored on its next drive, as Ajalon Bruno scrambled 13 yards for a touchdown. The extra point kick by Gerald Bruno gave the Patriots a 21-20 lead with 5:45 left in the third period.

On the Bears’ next drive, BHS had the ball on the Linden 14 with fourth down and inches to go for a first down. The LHS defense was able to corral Hopson for a loss, ceding the ball to the Patriots with 2:29 left in the third quarter.

Linden pushed the ball down the field, scoring on a 15-yard run by Tate to give LHS a 27-20 lead with 10:03 left in the game.

The point-after attempt was a comedy of errors, as Linden was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct following the TD run, then for illegal procedure, backing the ball up to the 23 for the point-after attempt. The pass attempt failed, but BHS was flagged for holding, bringing the ball back to the 13-yard line and another extra-point try. The Patriots were penalized for illegal procedure again, moving the ball to the 18, The extra-point pass attempt failed, but LHS held the 27-20 lead.

Billingsley took the ball from its 20-yard line and marched down the field, and Reese found Tyus again on a touchdown pass, this one a 20-yarder that brought the Bears to within a point with 4:39 left in the game. The extra-point kick went wide, and Billingsley trailed 27-26.

Linden lost the ball on downs at the BHS 7-yard line with 2:16 left in the game, and the Bears began to move. On second-and-10 from the BHS 27-yard line, Reese threw up a pass towards the Linden sideline, but LHS’s Larente Taylor came down with it at the Patriot 44 to halt the Bears for good with 18.6 seconds left.

“When you play good teams — which we did tonight — you’ve got big-time players making big-time plays in big-time games,” said BHS head coach Kevin Leseuer. “They may have made one or two more than we did. Surely, the interception cost us, but the missed extra points, the onside kick that went off the side of the foot — there were many times when we had a first down, and we got called for holding, and things like that. You just can’t make those kinds of mistakes in these kinds of games.”

Billingsley hosts regional rival Akron on Friday.