YARDLEY VISITS NORDHAM
The Nordham game had been carefully planned by Mr. Payson and Dan.
Nordham had this year a light-weight team with a rather weak line and
an exceptionally fast and clever back-field. On the offensive Yardley
was to stick largely to plays between tackles, relying on Tom Roeder
and Wallace Hammel for plunges, while Stearns, lighter but quicker, was
expected to “knife” himself through with good effect. Ridge and Simms
were to do the punting. Field goals were outside the calculations,
since no one could be depended on to perform them with any certainty.
On defense it was planned to use the “basket” formation, the end
dropping well back and outside the opposing flankers, the full-back
playing behind center and the quarter and the two half-backs playing a
deep field. This, which was practically Yardley’s defense against kick
formation, was to be used regularly, since the enemy had a reputation
for being wonderfully tricky in her back-field. The arrangement
weakened the Yardley line, but Nordham was not thought to be heavy
enough to gain by ordinary plunging tactics.
The Blue started the game with the following line-up: Vinton,
left end; Mitchell, left tackle; Ridge, left guard; Fogg, center;
Merriwell, right guard; Jensen, right tackle; Norton, right end; Simms,
quarter-back; Roeder, left half-back; Stearns, right half-back; Hammel,
full-back. It was planned to use a number of substitutes just as soon
as the game had been “placed on ice.” Holmes, quarter; Sayer, end;
Greene and Fayette, half-backs; Marion, full-back, and Fales, guard,
were all likely to play one or two periods.
Yardley won the toss and Hammel kicked off. Nordham tried the center
of the Yardley line in a tentative way and then punted. The kick was a
beautiful one against a slight wind and almost went over Simms’s head.
The Nordham ends came down the field like two streaks of lightning and
had little trouble getting by the interference. Simms made four or five
yards and then went down with two Nordham players on top of him. Simms
started right in trying out the Nordham line and Roeder and Hammel went
through for good gains. But it was necessary to punt on the third down.
Nordham opened up a bewildering series of attacks then. She had a quick
line-shift that was difficult to meet successfully and it soon became
evident that the formation being used by Yardley would not meet the
requirements of the occasion. Nordham set her whole team in motion to
the right or left, as the case might be, with the runner effectually
concealed until the moment came for him to “go in.” This had the effect
of upsetting Yardley’s formation, and twice Norton was badly fooled.
After Nordham had barely made her distance twice, Dan and Simms held a
consultation and the “basket” formation was abandoned, the ends playing
up into the line and the halves moving closer. That worked better, but
Nordham had a dozen tricks up her sleeve and rattled them off so fast
that Yardley began to be dazed. Plays that started without signals,
plays in which the whole back-field moved one way and the quarter,
carrying the ball, sprang around the opposite end; forward passes from
kick formation, forward passes from close formation, on-side kicks and
a half-dozen other plays tested the Yardley secondary defense as it had
not been tested all the fall. Nordham’s plays were, however, all built
around two players, her quarter, Buckman, a human eel, and her left
half-back, Lishing. Both were exceptionally fast starters, ran like the
wind, dodged miraculously and fought like wolves when tackled. Lishing
was tall and slim and the quarter-back was a small, wiry youngster of
seventeen, red of hair and freckled of face. He wore no head guard and
before the game was ten minutes old the slogan on the Blue’s side was,
“_Look for the red head!_”
Nordham worked the ball to the middle of the field and there a play
went wrong, the runner was thrown by Dan yards behind his line and
Nordham kicked. It was Stearns’s ball over near the side-line and he
had plenty of time to make the catch and get started. But there was
a fumble, the Nordham left end tore down, evaded Norton and tackled
Stearns just as that youth recovered the ball. It was Yardley’s ball
on her fifteen yards. A plunge at the Nordham left tackle netted two
yards and put the ball outside. It was taken in fifteen yards and
Roeder struck the center of the enemy’s line for four yards. There was
no great trouble getting through the first defense, but the secondary
played good ball that day and time and again Roeder, Hammel or Stearns
was stopped hard just when it seemed that he was safely through. With
four to go, Norton dropped back to punt. A poor pass slowed him up
and the kick when it got off was too low. Someone, a Nordham guard
perhaps, leaped into the path of the ball and it thudded against his
body, rebounded over the heads of the attack and trickled towards the
Yardley goal. Half a dozen players dived for it, but it was Lishing
who, getting through in some marvelous manner, picked it up and romped
straight over the goal-line and scored a touchdown between the posts.
Buckman kicked an easy goal.
There was no more scoring in that period, although Yardley took the
ball on steady plunges to the Nordham forty yards before the whistle
blew. In the second period a thirty-yard run by Lishing along the
side-line brought the spectators to their feet. A moment or two later
Buckman got away around the other end and covered fifteen before he
was finally stopped. With the ball on Yardley’s thirty yards, Nordham
tried a fake kick that netted little. Then Buckman fell back for a try
at goal from placement, although the opponents refused to believe that
it would not turn out a fake. It was a bona fide attempt, however, and
with a few feet more elevation it would have succeeded. As it was, the
ball passed under the crossbar, and a great sigh of relief went up from
the Yardley supporters on the stands.
Yardley chose to put the ball in scrimmage and then began an advance
down the field that would not be denied. Roeder and Hammel went through
the line time and again, and once or twice Stearns got past left
tackle for good gains. Simms worked a quarter-back run for twelve
yards and placed the pigskin on Nordham’s twenty-five. Then Roeder was
called on and made eight straight through center. Hammel slammed out
four more. Stearns was “knifed” past right guard for three. Nordham
rallied desperately and Roeder was thrown back for a loss. It was a
situation calling for a good drop-kicker and Dan gritted his teeth in
helplessness. Simms was for giving Norton a try, but Dan was afraid to
risk it. Instead a forward pass from kick formation was tried, Simms
passing to Dan at the side of the field. But Nordham was alert and
although Dan made the catch nicely and started for the goal-line he
was tackled for small gain and the ball went to Nordham on the twelve
yards. Nordham kicked on first down, Stearns caught in midfield and
came back seven before he was stopped. From there Yardley again took up
her advance. Nordham replaced her left guard, but Yardley still went
through and at last, after fourteen plays placed the ball over the line
for her first score. A punt-out gave Hammel a try for goal from the
twenty yards, but he missed badly. Nordham was still a point ahead.
But now it seemed only a question of how many more touchdowns Yardley
could smash out in the remaining time, for the Nordham line, it was
evident, could not stop Roeder or Hammel. There was no more scoring in
that period, however, and the two teams trotted off the field.
Payson had his chance to talk then, and he made good use of it.
Nordham, he predicted, would play a kicking game for the remainder
of the contest and would try field goals whenever she could. It was
up to the Yardley ends and half-backs, he said, to see that Nordham
didn’t gain on punting. “You’ve got to get that interference for the
catcher working, fellows. You let their ends get by every time. You let
them fool you. Run them out and don’t try to spill them until you can
accomplish something. Norton, and you too, Roeder, you go for them too
near the line. Several times you’ve upset those ends and they’ve picked
themselves up again and gone on down the field in time to stop the
runner. I’ve taught you a good interference for the man who’s running
the ball back. Now make it go! And one thing more, and this is for all
of you fellows; keep your eye on the ball. Don’t think you know what
the play is going to be; don’t try to guess it; _watch the ball every
minute_! I’ve been hammering that into you all the fall. If you don’t
learn to do it now you’ll have mighty slim chances of winning from
Broadwood next week.”
“Could we use a couple of the new plays, sir?” asked Simms. “That
delayed pass might work well near goal.”
“No, Simms, not with four Broadwood scouts in the stands,” replied the
coach dryly. “You’ve got plenty of plays if you make them go. Stick
to those. And don’t try forward passes inside the twenty-five yards,
Simms; these fellows are too knowing for that. Plug the line and wear
it out.”
The third period was the hardest fought of any. Yardley made good gains
through the Nordham line until the twenty-five yards was reached.
Then Nordham, playing close formation, twice held her for downs. Had
Yardley had a player who could have kicked an easy field goal the game
would have been decided then and there. Nordham invariably punted out
of danger on first down, and, with what wind there was still favoring
her, got off kicks of forty-five and fifty yards. It was discouraging
to peg half the length of the field and then be turned back on the very
threshold. But that is just what happened to the visitors twice. But
finally the tide of fortune turned.
Nordham, gaining the ball on a fumble by Hammel near the middle of the
field, kicked for forty yards. Simms gathered the pigskin in, recovered
seven yards before he was thrown and then worked an on-side kick that,
quite unexpected by Nordham, was recovered by Dan for a gain of thirty
yards.
Roeder tore off ten yards on one try and Hammel got six. Roeder made
four and Stearns got through for first down. Roeder, who had been
worked pretty hard, showed signs of wear and Fayette took his place.
Stearns got by left tackle for six yards and Simms went five on a wide
end run. Fayette gained two through center and Stearns was stopped on
an attempt at the left end. Hammel, on a double pass, made first down
through right guard. The ball was now down near the enemy’s twenty
yard line and near the side of the field. Hammel got around on the
short side of the field for twelve but was called back seven as he had
stepped over the line. Simms tried a wide run around the other end
and made less than a yard. The ball was opposite the goal and Hammel
crashed through for five and made it first down. Fayette got three on a
“skin-tackle” play and Stearns made four in the same place. Hammel was
given the ball then for a straight plunge at left guard and got through
and staggered over the goal line for the second touchdown. Dan took the
ball out and tried goal, but missed it by inches. The score stood 10 to
6 in Yardley’s favor. Nordham kicked off from midfield and Simms came
back twelve before the opposing ends reached him. Then the whistle
blew.
It was not advisable to make all the substitutions originally planned,
but Mr. Payson sent Holmes in for Simms at quarter, Sayer for Dan
and Marion for Hammel. Two minutes after the final period commenced
Nordham, from a kick formation, sent her full-back around Sayer for
twenty yards and the stands shrieked and howled. A plunge at Merriwell
was repulsed and Buckman, Nordham’s diminutive quarter-back, squirmed
through between Ridge and Mitchell and made seven before he was
rudely sat on. It took the youngster two minutes to recover from that
experience.
The ball was on Yardley’s thirty-eight yards and near the side of the
field. With one of her running plays in which Buckman, carrying the
pigskin, was hidden behind the line, Nordham placed the ball five
yards nearer the goal-line and directly in front of the crossbar. A
half-back knelt on the turf and Buckman retreated for a place-kick.
The pass was good and although the entire Yardley line came crashing
through desperately, Buckman lifted the ball neatly over the bar for
three more points. With the score 10 to 9, Yardley settled down to
add another touchdown. Stearns was injured slightly on the first
play and was taken out. Greene took his place. The back-field was now
much weaker, for neither Greene nor Fayette could make the holes that
Roeder and Stearns had made. Marion, at full-back, was a dependable
line-bucker and it was he who made most of the gains for the next five
minutes, gains which finally took the ball past the middle of the field
and into Nordham territory again. But unfortunately it was also Marion
whose fumble on the Nordham forty-five yard line gave the ball to the
enemy. On the first play Sayer was again drawn in and Lishing romped
around the Blue’s left end for eighteen yards amidst the wild applause
of Nordham partisans. Buckman tried the left of the opposing line for
a yard, the full-back squirmed through for three and then came one of
Nordham’s quick shifts and a forward pass across the field to the right
end who had managed to run over undetected. That was a hair-raising
moment. The end had a clear field ahead of him save for Simms who was
down near the twenty yards. But Ridge showed a burst of speed and
reached the runner near the thirty yard line and threw him hard out of
bounds. The ball was brought in and it was Nordham’s first down on the
thirty. It was naturally to be expected that Nordham would try an end
run, either to place the ball in front of goal or to advance it down
the short side of the field. But she didn’t. The interference swept to
the right, toward middle of the field, and Buckman plunged straight
ahead for six yards. The Nordham cheers were deafening now. Along
the side-line Mr. Payson and Dan paced, Dan scowling and the coach
imperturbable. With four to go, Nordham seemingly elected to try a
field goal on second down. The angle was extreme, although the distance
was only about twenty-five yards. But it was a fake. The half-back who
caught the ball started for a run toward the middle of the field. The
opponent, however, was on guard and he was dropped by Sayer for a loss
of three yards. But the ball was fairly opposite the posts and again
Buckman stepped back and again the half knelt on the turf.
“Block it!” shrieked Ridge, who was field captain. “Get through and
block this kick!”
It was Ridge himself who barely tipped the ball as it sailed away from
Buckman’s toe and went straight over the center of the bar. Pandemonium
broke loose in the Nordham camp and the Nordham players jumped and
cavorted gleefully. There was less than four minutes of time left.
In that four minutes Yardley worked the ball for fifty yards without
losing it once, her backs slamming at the Nordham line with the
desperation born of despair. And almost under the shadow of the goal
posts, when another four or five downs might have saved the day, the
whistle blew!
“Nordham 12, Opponents 10,” said the score board. Yardley had met her
second defeat.