CHAPTER IX

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.

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.