The new attack formation—now known as Formation B—was introduced to the Varsity on the Wednesday before the Lesterville contest. It was designed to conceal the play until the last possible moment and required only slight shifts of the backfield before the ball was snapped. A close line of seven players was used. The left halfback stood behind left guard and some two yards back, the right half in a corresponding position on the other side, the quarterback stood three yards directly behind center and the fullback stood three yards farther back of quarter. From this formation plunges at any position, and runs, forward passes, lateral passes and punts could be got off without enough shifting to appraise the opponent of the character or point of attack. The center usually passed direct to the runner. The feature that was most important in Dick’s eyes, however, was that it not only concealed a punt but protected the punter. Fullback had only to drop back another step or two and quarter need only jump to the right out of the path of the ball to convert a rushing to a kicking formation. To add to the deception, these slight shifts need not be followed by a punt. A fullback run around either end or a forward pass might follow, or the ball at the last moment might be snapped to either of the other three backs. The formation had promised well on paper and by Thursday it had proved itself.
Dick’s campaign was built around Morris Brent to a large degree. Dick did not believe that his team was sufficiently powerful in rushing ability to gain with certainty through the Springdale line inside the latter’s twenty yards. Nor, while he looked for some success with forward and lateral passing, did he expect to be able to cross the opponent’s goal line by that style of play. It was Morris’s drop-kicking he was counting on inside the enemy’s twenty-yard line, and there appeared to be no good reason why that accomplished young gentleman should disappoint him. Morris was now taking his regular amount of work and had been making seven and eight goals out of ten in practice and in scrimmage with the Scrubs. What might happen, though, if Morris went stale before the game or had an off-day on the eighteenth, Dick hated to think!
He did not flatter himself that his plan was a secret from the enemy, for Springdale well knew Morris’s kicking powers and knew that he was as good as ever, in spite of his accident in the Summer. The only deception Dick could hope to indulge in was that of concealing his plays until the moment came to strike. Once inside the Springdale twenty-yard line, Clearfield would be expected to try for a field-goal unless, which was not at all likely, she found herself able to rush the ball over for a score. Springdale had twice sent scouts to watch her opponent play, a proceeding which had visibly annoyed George Cotner, who had never become reconciled to Dick’s and Lanny’s “no scouting” edict. However, it is doubtful if the Springdale spies discovered anything of use to their team. On one occasion they had seen Clearfield beaten by Corwin and on the other had watched the Purple capture the Benton contest by the use of the most elemental plays.
Springdale herself had come through a successful season, meeting with but one defeat and one tie. She was due for a hard game next Saturday, but, after that, like Clearfield, she was opposed to a team which was likely to afford her only a good stiff practice. One point there was on which Dick had finally satisfied himself. Springdale was without the services of a player who could be relied on to score by goals from the field. An excellent punter she did have; two, in fact; but a drop-kicker was not included in her assets. Springdale, in a word, was counting on a victory to be secured by all-around superiority of line and backfield and not by the individual efforts of any one star. Dick often wished that he, too, was able to pin his faith on a powerful attack that would win through the opponent’s line. The trouble with depending on a single individual to win a share at least of the points was that if anything happened to the individual either before or during the game the fat was in the fire! Consequently, he watched after Morris like a mother hen protecting a lone chick, and sometimes ruefully told himself that he was unwisely banking too much for success on one boy’s right leg! If anything happened to that leg——
But Dick refused to dwell on that contingency. He couldn’t afford to and keep his wits about him!
On Saturday the Varsity, twenty-five strong, journeyed to Lesterville in a special pumpkin-hued trolley-car and engaged in the last hard game before the final test.
CHAPTER XX
MORRIS CALLS IN THE DOCTOR
Nearly the entire school accompanied the team to Lesterville. The distance was short and the journey could be made inexpensively on the trolley line. Besides, football enthusiasm was by now rampant. The Benton victory had rekindled dampened patriotism and the yellow-sided cars which sped across country in the wake of the Varsity’s special were filled to the limit with excited and noisy partisans. Lesterville was a manufacturing town and the Lesterville High School had an unfortunate but not undeserved reputation for roughness in its athletic contests. Dick, who had conducted the baseball team there in the summer, recalled the unpleasantness that had occurred on that occasion and hoped that to-day’s meeting would pass without similar incident. He looked for a victory, in spite of the fact that they had agreed not to have recourse to either the new formation or to any of the plays which had been designed for Springdale’s special benefit. If they could win with the old plays—and both Dick and Lanny believed they could—well and good; otherwise there would be another defeat chalked up against Clearfield’s record.
When Lesterville kicked off at the start of the game the Purple presented Merrick at left end, Partridge at left tackle, Cable at left guard, Haley at center, A. Beaton at right guard, Wayland at right tackle, Felker at right end, Cottrell at quarter, White at left half, Hansard at right half and N. Beaton at full. With the exception of the right halfback position, the line-up was the best Clearfield could put into the field, unless, having in mind Morris Brent’s kicking ability, we give him the call over Nelson Beaton at fullback. Beaton, however, hit the line harder than Morris and was more clever in a broken field, and it was probable that in the Springdale game he would be used throughout the first half as long as Lanny and Cottrell made good with their punting or unless a field-goal became necessary.