[CHAPTER XX]
MR. AUSTIN LOSES HIS TEMPER
Payson’s last words as the fellows trotted out onto the field for the last half were: “Look out for slugging; don’t give them a chance to get at you; and whatever happens don’t slug back.”
Then the whistle sounded again.
There had been another change in Yardley’s team. Berwick was out and Hill was back in his place. Berwick had experienced a lot of rough handling and looked limp and weary. Clapp was still running the team.
Yardley got the ball on a fumble a few minutes after the half opened and, according to the campaign mapped out in the dressing room, began a kicking game. Kapenhysen was easily ten yards better than Brewer’s punter and Brewer, after two returns of the pigskin, realized the fact and went at the Yardley line again. But the center was no longer a vulnerable spot; Hill crumpled up every play directed against him; and Brewer sought elsewhere for her openings. Finally some success rewarded her, Folwell, at left tackle, weakening enough to let several plays go through him. Dan came to his rescue, but was too light to stop the heavy Brewer backs. It was evident before the half was five minutes old that Brewer meant to win by fair means or foul. Time and again the umpire’s attention was called to Brewer’s violations of the rules, but always he contented himself with cautioning them. Mr. Austin, in his capacity as field judge, ventured on several occasions to remonstrate. The umpire was suave and polite, but was unable to see any of the transgressions.
For ten minutes the ball went back and forth between Brewer’s thirty yards and Yardley’s forty. Then one of Kapenhysen’s punts went over the heads of the red-and-white backs and by the time it was recovered it was down on Brewer’s twelve yards. Brewer kicked on first down, but the attempt was a miserable failure, the ball going out of bounds at her thirty yards. It was brought in and Capes reeled off five yards by running half across the field. A mass attack at center failed of any gain and Kapenhysen fell back for a placement kick. Clapp kneeled on the forty yard line and Hill passed straight and true. The Yardley forwards held strongly and the ball sailed away over the struggling lines. But the direction wasn’t good and the pigskin passed to the left of the goal by several yards.
Brewer kicked off from her twenty-five yards, and Folwell, catching the punt, ran it back behind good interference for twenty yards and it was Yardley’s first down again near Brewer’s thirty-five. Clapp essayed a quarter-back kick, but unfortunately it was blocked by the Brewer right-end who followed it up, recovered it on the run and set off towards Yardley’s goal. He was a fairly speedy runner, a long-legged, rangy youth, and before the pursuit was set in motion he had gained a good start. But it was a long distance to that last white line and long before he reached it, Dan, who was in the van of the pursuers, brought him down from behind. After that he managed to squirm another five or six yards, dragging Dan along with him. That brought the ball to Yardley’s twenty-two yards and, amidst the wild, encouraging cheers of their supporters, clustering about the corner of the field and back of the goal, the Brewer players made ready for a desperate effort.