THE FIRST GAME
“Say, you got stung, didn’t you?” asked Tubby with a grin of delight.
“How?” questioned Dan. Tubby pointed to the copy of the _Yardley
Scholiast_ which Dan held.
“Didn’t you subscribe?”
“Yes; why not?”
“You must want to waste your money, that’s all,” sneered Tubby. “The
_Scholiast_ never has anything in it. I wouldn’t give fifty cents a
year for it; and they stick you two and a half. But they never got me.
What’s the good? If there’s anything in it I want to read I go to the
library for it.”
“But it seems to me,” answered Dan, “that it’s a mighty good sheet for
a school paper; well printed, well written and pretty newsy.”
“They’ve got a better one at Broadwood,” replied Tubby. “Theirs is a
fortnightly called the _Portfolio_; it’s a dandy.”
“Say, Tubby, why the dickens didn’t you go to Broadwood instead of
coming here?” asked Dan impatiently. “You’re always cracking Broadwood
up and running Yardley down. You make me weary, Tubby.”
“Huh!” said Tubby. “I wish I had. My dad wouldn’t let me; he went here
himself; they used to call it Oxford School then. I’d go to Broadwood
in a minute if he’d let me.”
“Well, any time you want to change, Tubby,” said Dan wearily, “I’ll do
what I can to help.”
Tubby scowled deeply.
“Want the room to yourself, I suppose,” he said. “Well, you won’t get
it. I’ll stay here as long as I like!”
Dan made no answer, but took up the school weekly again and continued
the article he had been reading when Tubby entered. It was a criticism
of the football material, which, declared the _Scholiast_, was well up
to the average.
“Of the men who played on last year’s team five are eligible
this Fall. These are Captain Colton, guard; Hill, center;
Mitchell, tackle; Loring, quarter, and Kapenhysen, full-back.
There are consequently but six places to fill and there seems
a wealth of material to choose from. The center and right side
of the line will be as it was last season, barring accidents.
Hill at center, while not heavy, is very aggressive and fast
and is a veteran player. Captain Colton, at right guard,
is one of the best line-men representing the Blue in recent
years. He has weight, speed and aggressiveness and last year
more than held his own against every opponent he faced. He
uses his head every moment of the time and opens holes well.
Mitchell, at right tackle, went into the Broadwood game last
Autumn at almost a moment’s notice and, in spite of lack of
training and experience, played his position capitally. This
season, with the proper attention, he should show up as one
of the best on the team. On the left of center the positions
of guard and tackle are to be filled. For guard, Hadlock, who
played on the second team last year, seems the most promising.
Ridge, a substitute last year, plays a good game. There are
also Smith and Merriwell, both of whom did excellent work on
the Second Class Team last Fall. Folwell, who ran a close race
with Poole a year ago for the position of left tackle, seems
the natural selection for the place this season, but he has
been ill this summer and so may not be able to make good. Other
possible candidates for that position are Coke and Little. The
end positions will probably prove troublesome to the coach.
The material looks good but is practically inexperienced, if
we except Dickenson, who substituted last year in one or two
games. Norton, Williams and Sayer played on the Second last
year with varying success. Williams is a fast man for his size
and gets down the field well, but his tackling is usually
uncertain and indecisive.
“At quarter Loring, who held the position last year and put
up a star game against Broadwood, is first choice. In fact,
his closest competitor, Clapp, is hardly in the same class.
Loring is in many ways an ideal quarter. He plays fast, is well
grounded in the rudiments of the game and handles his team
excellently. He uses his head on all occasions, and it was this
fact that enabled him to stave off defeat twice last year in
the Broadwood game. Two new half-backs will have to be found,
but it is likely that Connor and Capes will start the season,
with Dyer and Roeder pushing them hard for the honors. Connor
is a fast man in a broken field and is hard to stop. Capes
hits the line hard and keeps his feet well. He can usually be
depended on for short gains through the line, and although
not brilliant is a steady, dependable player. At full-back
Kapenhysen is head and shoulders above all competitors at
present. He is a veteran of two seasons, having been First
Team substitute in 1905 and regular full-back last year. He is
one of the cleverest players on the team, a hard worker and a
brilliant performer in close formation plays. As a punter he
is one of the best on the school gridirons, and he will be
depended on for long kicks, Loring sharing the work when short
punts are wanted.
“Besides the material mentioned there is the usual supply
of green men who may develop into First Team candidates. At
present only two have shown any great possibilities. Of these
Sommers, who has entered the Second Class, and who played with
Myrtledale High School last year, is a candidate for tackle and
may make good before the season is over. Vinton, a Third Class
man, played on his grammar school team last year at end. He
is very fast and follows the ball closely. If he carried more
weight his chance of making the First Team would seem excellent.
“On the whole our team promises this year to be quite up to the
average, and distinctly better than the eleven which held the
fast Broadwood team to a single score last year. In Mr. Payson
the school has a fine coach. During his four years with us he
had turned out two winning teams, while, all things considered,
last year’s contest was more of a victory than a defeat. Mr.
Payson may rest assured that Yardley Hall will support him and
the team enthusiastically and do its share toward securing a
victory over its old rival, Broadwood Academy. The first game
of the season takes place to-morrow on Yardley Field with
Greenburg High School. A hard contest is not looked for. Last
year Yardley won 24--4, and this year the score should be no
closer. The game, however, will give the school its first
opportunity to see the 1907 team in action, and all who are
able to do so should attend to-morrow’s game.
“The schedule is as follows. Unless otherwise specified the
game will be played here.
Oct. 5. Greenburg High School.
Oct. 12. Forest Hill School.
Oct. 19. St. John’s Academy.
Oct. 26. Carrel’s School at East Point.
Nov. 2. Porter Institute.
Nov. 9. Brewer A. A. at Brewer.
Nov. 16. Nordham Academy.
Nov. 23. Broadwood Academy.”
Dan would have been less--or more--than human had he not read the few
lines relating to himself several times. In the end, but this was not
until Tubby had wandered away in search of a new book to read, he cut
that part of the article out and stowed it away in a corner of his
pocketbook. And next day he bought an extra copy of the _Scholiast_,
marked the place modestly and mailed the paper home.
The game with Greenburg was played with the thermometer well up toward
seventy degrees and was a slow and stupid performance. Yardley put
in twenty-six men before the game was over. Dan, who saw it from the
side-line, believed ruefully that he was the only player who didn’t get
in. A blocked kick gave Greenburg a safety in the first few minutes
of play, but after that the high school was never dangerous. In one
fifteen and one twelve-minute half Yardley managed to pile up twenty
points. In each case Kapenhysen missed goal. The playing was very
ragged and slow, and the warmth of the day was undoubtedly responsible
for much of this. Greenburg, having repeated her last year’s feat and
scored, went away as happy as larks, and the Yardley players trailed
tiredly back to the gymnasium unable to think of anything to be proud
of. Payson had little to say, but he looked unusually sober and seemed
to be doing a good deal of thinking. One of the things he was thinking
was this: If Greenburg had been clever at forward passing and a little
shiftier all around what would the score have been? As it was the high
school had tried the forward pass but once in each half. The first
time she had recovered the ball almost without opposition only to lose
it on a fumble the next instant. The second time the throw had been
poor and the ball had struck the ground without being touched. Payson
couldn’t deny the fact that the outlook for the game with Forest Hill
School next Saturday was depressing. Forest Hill always gave Yardley a
hard struggle and always knew a lot of football. This year she would
probably come to Wissining with a whole pack of new tricks to try out.
Of course defeat at the hands of Forest Hill would be a small matter
enough, and something that had happened before, though not often. But
Payson feared that a defeat coming now at the beginning of the season,
and especially a defeat encompassed by this “new football” of which
Yardley knew little, would prove a discouragement to his charges. He
decided that before next Saturday the team should be drilled to some
extent in a defense to meet the forward pass.
After supper that evening Payson settled himself in front of the table
in his little sitting-room in the village and did some studying. At his
elbow lay a thick scrap-book of newspaper and magazine clippings and
a number of small memorandum books, while in front of him was a small
blackboard, some thirty inches long and correspondingly wide, ruled
with white painted lines into the likeness of a miniature football
field. On it were placed twenty-two little disks of wood, eleven of
them blue and eleven green, each lettered on top, “L.E.,” “L.G.,”
“R.H.,” “Q.,” and so on, each representing a player. With these
imaginary men on his imaginary gridiron Payson figured out most of his
plays and solved his problems. To-night he arranged and rearranged his
little blue and green disks over and over, traced queer lines on the
blackboard with a piece of chalk and made copious notes on a sheet of
paper. But when bedtime came he put aside his playthings with a dubious
shake of his head and a dissatisfied frown.
There was light work on the field Monday afternoon, but in the trophy
room that evening there was a blackboard lecture that filled every
minute of the hour at the coach’s disposal. Two kinds of forward passes
were illustrated on the blackboard, the “bunch” pass with three backs
and one end going down and forming a group to receive the ball, and the
“one man” pass in which the backfield fakes to one side and the ball is
thrown to an end who has gone through unnoticed at the other side. Next
Payson showed how poorly prepared a team would be to cope with either
of these plays from ordinary defense formation. In ordinary formation
Yardley played her quarter some thirty yards up the field, the rest of
the backs reinforcing the line some three yards behind it.
“You can see that this formation,” explained Payson as he sketched it
on the board, “won’t work against a forward pass. We’ve got to have a
special formation for this play. Here’s one we will try out to-morrow.
Left half and quarter split the field, back about thirty yards, as for
a punt. Right half and full drop back fifteen yards at each end of the
line. To-morrow the second eleven will try the forward pass and the
first will see what they can do against it from this formation.”
During the rest of the week the second eleven was drilled in the
forward pass and the first was coached in defense during a portion
of each practice. By Friday the first team had learned the first
principles, at least, of defense on this play, and Payson’s fears of a
disastrous overthrow at the hands of Forest Hall had somewhat subsided.
He was not yet ready to teach the forward pass to the first; it was to
rely on ordinary football for another fortnight.
Forest Hill’s eleven proved to be light, fast and brainy. In the first
ten minutes of play it simply swept Yardley off its feet and did about
as it wanted to, scoring twice as the result of the new football which
Payson so despised. In that first ten minutes Forest Hill tried the
forward pass seven times and made it go every time but twice. One
of her gains was over fifty yards and several netted from twenty to
thirty. The new defense formation was all right, the weakness was
with the Yardley players who allowed themselves to be fooled time and
again. Forest Hill made her passes from almost every sort of formation
and Yardley was kept guessing every instant. Never once did she recover
the ball on the opponent’s passes, Forest Hill’s two failures resulting
because the ball struck the ground without being touched. Forest Hill
obligingly missed both goals, thus leaving the score at 10 to 0.
Loring, realizing that the only way to prevent another score in that
half was to keep the ball out of Forest Hill’s hands, went to work
with his backs and plugged away at small gains through the opponent’s
line, using up all the time possible and finally, after taking the
ball the length of the field, was held for downs on the opponent’s
eight yards. Forest Hill kicked from behind her goal and Colton nabbed
the ball on the enemy’s thirty-five yard line. But before the teams
could line up again the whistle sounded. Yardley trotted off the field
with sensations of vast relief, while Forest Hill got together on the
side line and planned new atrocities to spring in the next half on an
apparently helpless opponent. Up in the gymnasium Andy and Paddy, the
latter trainer’s assistant and rubber, were busy with witch hazel,
arnica and liniment, bandages and surgeon’s plaster. There were no
serious injuries; just a strained wrist here, a twisted ankle there,
contusions all about. Oliver Colton, stretched at full length on a
bench, with Paddy Forbes, the rubber, hard at work on his left knee,
spoke to Alf Loring who was seated behind him viewing approvingly a
nice clean strip of adhesive plaster about his wrist.
“What’s the matter with us, Alf?” asked Colton anxiously.
“Matter?” was the reply. “Nothing, except that we’re up against a team
that knows a kind of football we don’t.”
“Well, we ought to have scored down there inside their ten yards, just
the same,” said Colton.
“Yes, and we’ll do it next time. That was on me, I guess, Ollie. I
should have given the ball to Kap.”
“It was on all of us. But this half we’ve got to score twice.”
“Fifteen minutes, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Where’s Mr. Payson?”
“Over there.” Alf nodded across the room.
“I want to see him. That’s enough, Paddy, thanks.” Colton pulled
himself up and limped across to where the coach was talking earnestly
to the two ends, Williams and Dickenson. Alf watched him a moment and
then turned to the fellow beside him.
“Hello, Vinton,” he said. “What did you think of it?”
“Sort of disgusting,” answered Dan. “We’ve got to keep the ball away
from them this half or they’ll score again.”
“That’s right. Well, it’s their kick-off. You going to get in this
half?” Dan shook his head.
“I guess not,” he answered. “Williams and Dickenson did pretty good
work, didn’t they?”
“I guess so; Dickenson did, anyway. But they got fooled on those
forward passes every time.”
“All right, fellows,” called Mr. Payson. Silence followed. “We’re
going to change our defense a little this half and I expect it to work
better. On every formation that Forest Hill tries except an ordinary
close formation, with their backs close up, I want you to open out
your line. Guards will play two yards from center, tackles three yards
from guards and ends five yards from tackles. Understand?” He repeated
the directions. “It will be tackle’s place to get through and spoil
the pass if possible, and the end will put out the opposing end, crowd
him into the center of the field. Quarter and left half will play five
yards nearer in than they’ve been playing. We’re going to kick this
half until we get inside their twenty-five yards. Then I expect the
ball to go over on straight plays. We want three scores. All right.
Loring, I want to see you a moment.”
Forest Hill kicked off and Loring caught the ball on his twenty yards
and started off with it. He covered ten yards and then, as the enemy
closed in upon him, he passed the ball back to Kapenhysen, who caught
it neatly, let up on his pace and punted far down the field. Forest
Hill was caught napping and the ball went over the heads of her backs.
Her quarter turned quickly and raced after the sphere, which had
struck on his thirty-five yard line, and was now bouncing erratically
toward the goal. The Forest Hill right half was close behind him, but
Williams, the Yardley left end, had streaked down the field and was
ready to take a hand in the fun. A cry of warning from the Forest Hill
half went up as Williams shouldered him aside. The quarter dove for
the ball and Williams dove for the quarter. The next instant he had
snuggled the pigskin under his arm and was trying to find his feet
again, with the Forest Hill quarter holding him by the left leg. Then
the half crushed down on top of the invader and the ball was down on
Forest Hill’s twenty-four yards.
Forest Hill arose nobly to the demands of the occasion, but she was
plainly bewildered by the sudden turning of the tables and Yardley was
not to be denied. Loring sent Capes against the center for four yards
and Dyer on a cross-buck outside of tackle for seven more. Kapenhysen
punched a hole through left guard for two yards and Capes followed him
for four more. With four to go on the third down the prospect looked
dubious, but on a tandem attack at center with the whole back-field
pushing, Capes kept his feet until he had been shoved through for the
required distance. The ball was on the three yards and it was first
down. Kapenhysen made a scant yard on the first try, but on the next
attempt went over, broke away from the enemy, and romped around back of
goal. Loring kicked an easy goal. The score was 10--6, and only four
minutes had elapsed.
On the kick-off Forest Hill captured the ball on her ten yards and
brought it back to her twenty-two. On an ordinary formation two plunges
inside of right tackle netted her nine yards. But a third attempt in
the same place was a failure and the ball changed hands. Loring tried
a quarter-back kick, which was recovered by the enemy on her ten-yard
line. Her full-back went back apparently for a punt, but Yardley was
suspicious and opened her line. The ball went back and a forward pass
came hurtling down the field. Dickenson kept Forest Hill’s right end
out of the play, but the ball was luckily recovered by a Forest Hill
forward after having been fumbled by Folwell of Yardley. This netted
the enemy twenty yards and more. Another pass on the other side of the
line found no one awaiting it and Forest Hill was set back fifteen
yards. Again the kick formation was used and again the ball was thrown
forward by the full-back. It was intended for a “bunch” pass, but
Yardley broke up the gathering and the ball plumped into the arms of
her right tackle.
Yardley kicked and again Forest Hill started back up the field. But
now she saw that the forward pass could no longer be relied upon with
certainty. So she started running the ends, but made little profit. In
the middle of the field the ball went again to Yardley. Some changes in
the line were made now, Smith taking Colton’s place and Berwick going
in at center for Hill. Kapenhysen punted and the ball was Forest Hill’s
on her ten yards. A fake kick, with full-back slashing through between
guard and tackle, netted six yards and five more came as a result of
a desperate attack on the new center. Then a run around Williams took
the ball to the forty-yard line. Yardley stiffened and two attacks at
the line were thrown back. Forest Hill punted and Capes gathered in the
ball on his fifteen-yard line and ran it back twenty. Again Kapenhysen
punted and Dickenson nabbed the Forest Hill back before he could take
a step. Yardley tried a double pass and gained eight yards. A plunge at
center gave her the rest of her distance. An on-side kick was tried,
but resulted disastrously. Hadlock blocked it and although Forest
Hill’s right half fell on the ball it was down for a twelve-yard loss.
A delayed pass netted four yards and a run outside tackle three more.
The Forest Hill quarter-back started out to gather in the rest of the
required distance by a run around right end, but Williams managed to
get past his opponent and down the runner behind the line.
[Illustration: DELAYED PASS NEAR SIDE LINE]
Kapenhysen fell back for a punt, but the ball went to Capes instead
and he reeled off fifteen yards before he was captured. Then Loring
punted from close up to the line and the ball was Forest Hill’s on her
twenty yards. She was playing on the defensive now, had abandoned all
hope of adding to her score and was eager only to keep her opponent
from crossing her goal-line again. She kicked on first down and the
punt went high in the air and fell out of bounds at the twenty-seven
yards. There remained six minutes of playing time and Loring settled
down to smashing football. Connor was sent in at right half in place
of Dyer and Norton took Dickenson’s place at right end. It was hard
going at first and the white lines passed slowly underfoot. But after
a few terrific plunges at the right side of the Forest Hill line
something weakened there and Connor and Capes went through for gains
of three and four yards. On her ten yards Forest Hill called time for
an injured player and put in a new man at right tackle. That wrought
an improvement, but Kapenhysen got by the newcomer for a couple of
yards and made it first down. There remained some eight yards to go for
a score and Loring and Colton put their heads together. The ball was
well over toward the side-line and it was advisable to work it back
toward the center of the field. There were two ways to do this. One was
to bring off a play toward the left of the line and the center of the
field and the other was to send a play at the other end in the hope
of gaining and then being pushed over the side-line. Colton and Loring
decided on the latter.
The ball was passed to Loring and the other backs started toward the
left of the line. Loring made the motion of passing the ball to right
half and right half appeared to have caught it and doubled his arms
about it. Meanwhile left half had dropped to his knees and Loring had
kept the ball, hiding it as well as possible from the opponents. As the
fake attack reached the end of the line to the left, the left half-back
arose and ran hard for the right end of the line, taking the ball from
Loring at a hand-pass. The trick worked even better than expected, for
Forest Hill had been drawn away from the side-line and Capes reeled
off the remaining eight yards without going out of bounds and was only
tackled as he went over the goal-line. A punt-out was necessary and
this was a failure. But the score stood 11--10 in Yardley’s favor and
she had pulled herself out of a bad hole. The whistle sounded a minute
later and the game was at an end.
Over on the stands Yardley Hall shouted long and blissfully in honor of
the team.