Fourth Down!

by Ralph Henry Barbour

Slowing as he neared the prey, he feinted as though to pass behind the Orange left half who was running about three yards inside the man with the ball. The half, guessing that the enemy would do the thing he appeared not to be doing, ran on, and Curran, leaping forward, circled behind him. And, although the half challenged, throwing himself between Curran and his team-mate, Curran managed somehow to meet the impact and, carried forward by his own momentum, seized one Yellow-and-Black leg ere it twinkled beyond his reach. The man with the ball added another yard to his gain, dragging Curran with him, but that weight was not to be denied and he came to his knees. Then Casement flattened him out, friend and foe labored breathlessly up and the whistle blew.

Brown and Young’s had made a gain of nearly thirty yards, for when the ball had been wrested from the tenacious grip of the Orange right half-back it went down just short of Yardley’s thirty-yard line. Orange-hued banners waved wildly on the east stand while Yardley gave a well-deserved cheer for the rival half-back.

Brown and Young’s had her eyes on the goal-line now and it seemed that she was not to be denied. Twice she hurled her full-back through for short gains at left guard, and then, using the new formation again, worked as pretty a quarter-back run around her left end as had ever been seen on Yardley Field. With the ball on the seventeen yards, she tried the line once more and split through for half the needed distance, the Blue’s left crumpling badly. Twining took the place of Rose, and another attempt on the left gained a scant yard. With four to go on third down, Brown and Young’s made all preparations for a place-kick, and a big, long-legged tackle ranged back to position. Yet Yardley refused to believe in that kick. The Orange needed seven points to tie, and it wasn’t likely that, with only a short time left, she would satisfy herself with a mere three points. And so, although everything pointed to a kick from placement, Fanning and Curran sounded their warnings and the backs hovered anxiously midway between line and goal. Then, at last, the ball sped back.

But it never reached the outstretched hands of the tackle. Instead, it went to a half-back and, as the Blue’s forwards desperately broke through, the half poised the pigskin calmly until Casement was almost on him and then as calmly sped it over the mêlée diagonally into the waiting arms of his right end. And that youth had but to take two strides to cross the last white line. When he was pulled down he was almost behind the right goal post.

How that end got into position for receiving the pass unnoticed none on the Yardley team ever knew. One moment he wasn’t there and the next moment he was. Halliday and Deering, theoretically at least, shared the blame, although, as Fanning generously said afterwards, a forward-pass was the last thing expected. Not once before had the enemy attempted a forward from ordinary formation, and unconsciously Yardley had grown to think that that play was not included in her plan of battle. As it was, Arnold had seen the ball hurtling toward the corner of the field and had leaped forward with a sick feeling at his heart. But he had been a fraction of a moment too late. The end had made the catch ere Arnold reached him, and although Arnold threw desperate arms toward him the end eluded them and went free until Curran pulled him to earth.

Brown and Young’s walked the ball out and, although the angle was sufficient to allow Yardley to hope for failure, the big tackle sent it squarely between the posts and the score was tied.

With less than four minutes left, it was fairly obvious that 7 to 7 would be the final score, but Yardley, with three new men in her line-up, still hoped and returned eagerly to the fray. The kick-off went to the Orange’s twelve yards and came back only to her fifteen. A skin-tackle on her right brought her three yards and a second attempt was stopped. For the first time since the game had started the Orange players became ugly. Many changes had been made, and possibly it was a substitute who, charging through, tried to “mix it up” with Bates, who had succeeded Deering. Friends of both players sprang between and the Orange youth got off with a warning from the referee. There were a few hisses, many “boos” and some laughter from the stands. Possibly the incident supplied the added incentive that allowed Yardley to break through a moment later and block the adversary’s kick. The ball bounded from the up-thrown arm of a Yardley lineman and became lost in a mass of struggling players and for a long moment confusion reigned. When the referee finally penetrated to the bottom of the squirming, grunting pile he found the ball snuggled in the arms of a Yardley forward. The Blue cheered wildly and implored a touchdown as the result became known to the stands, and, since the teams lined up on the Orange’s fourteen yards, a touchdown looked possible enough.

But the Blue’s first play resulted disastrously. Clarke, who had taken Halliday’s place at the right end of the line, was far offside when the ball was snapped and the team was set back. A plunge at guard-tackle hole on the left gave Yardley four yards, and Snowden, from kick formation, managed two more around right end. Then, however, a forward-pass, Snowden to Bates, went wrong and Fanning dropped back for a try-at-goal. While both stands grew silent, Will Curran patted the ground and poised himself on his knees for the pass from center. The position was at a slight angle and the distance was less than twenty yards and the Blue already saw victory perched upon her banner. But Brown and Young’s was desperate and Yardley, perhaps, oversure, and when the ball came back to Curran so, too, came half the Orange team, and, although Fanning met the poised ball fairly, it was still breast-high when the enemy reached it. There was a tragic thud as it rebounded from an onrushing player, followed by cries and the pounding of many feet as friend and foe took up the chase. The pursuit passed over Curran like a wave, leaving him writhing on the sod.

Back to the thirty-yard line trickled the pigskin, and there a Brown and Young’s tackle scooped it up from under the nose of half a dozen others and sprang away toward the distant Yardley goal. But although he started with a clear field, and although hastily-formed interference grouped itself about him, he was in no condition for speed, and near the middle of the field Bates, eluding the interference, pulled him to earth.