“Why don’t they yell?” Scott asked. “Now is the time the team needs it.”
“Who could cheer such an exhibition as that?” Johnson asked in disgust.
Suddenly the stand went wild. A Lawrence runner, rounding the end, far out beyond the other team slipped in a puddle and fell. The ball rolled toward the goal line and a Minnesota player fell on it on the five-yard line.
“That was hard luck,” Scott remarked when the cheering had subsided.
“Hard luck!” Johnson exclaimed. “Who do you want to win this game?”
“Minnesota, of course,” Scott retorted indignantly, “but to win on a thing like that does not do them any credit.”
“Kept ’em from scoring, anyway,” Johnson answered doggedly.
The ball was kicked into safety once more and the Lawrence team started on another rush for the goal. Again they seemed irresistible, and only a fumble on the ten-yard line saved a score. What had started as a practice game had developed into a real struggle for victory with Minnesota continually on the defensive.
At the end of the first quarter neither team had scored. Again and again in the next period, the fast Lawrence team carried the ball through their heavier opponents only to lose it near the goal line by some slip of their own. Not once were they held on downs. But fate seemed to be against them, for the whistle blew at the end of the second quarter with the first down on the Minnesota two-yard line.
No sooner had the teams left the field for the ten minutes’ rest between halves than the big University band formed in front of the grandstand and marched around the field playing lively airs to try to put some heart into the crowd. It did not succeed very well; the crowd seemed utterly beaten and without hope.