"We're going to be beaten, aren't we?" asked another Navy onlooker.
It was as yet too early to predict safely, though all the appearances were that the visitors would do whatever scoring was to be done to-day.
Yet, even when they felt themselves outclassed, the middies hung to their opponents with dogged perseverance. It took nearly all of the first half for the Hannistons to place the Navy goal in final, desperate danger.
Then, of a sudden, while the Hannistons worked within a dozen yards of the Navy goal line, the college boys made a new attack, the strongest they had yet shown.
There was a bumping crash as the lines came together, at the Navy's right. Farley and Page were swept clear off their feet and the assailants swept onward. Another clever attack, backed by a ruse, and one of the college boys started on a dead run with the ball. In vain the Navy's backs tried to stop him. The Hanniston boys successfully interfered for their runner, and the ball was touched down behind the goal line.
Gone were the cheers that had been ascending from the brigade. All the
Navy crowd gasped in dismay. The ball was carried back, kicked, and
Hanniston had scored six points.
"Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha—Hanniston! Wow!" went up derisively from the visiting howlers.
"Hepson! Hepson! Pull us out!" came the appeal.
"Darry! Darry! Rush it!"
As the two elevens were lining up for another start the time-keeper's whistle sounded the end of the first half of the game.