The Secret Play

by Ralph Henry Barbour

Lesterville lined up a big, powerful-looking lot of players and it soon became evident to the visiting contingent that Clearfield would not find it an easy matter to gain through the line. Her first attempts ended disastrously and Chester Cottrell punted on third down. A big, rangy Lesterville back pulled the ball down and came charging back with it, eluding tacklers until he had raced over four white marks. Even then it required the combined services of Lanny and Hansard to stop him. Lesterville started at once on a series of plays on tackle that proved good for two and three-yard gains. The fullback, standing two paces behind center, took the ball direct and slammed at Partridge or Wayland and seemed always to find a hole on one side or the other. Lesterville marched down into Clearfield territory before the latter solved that attack, simple as it was. Then Cottrell closed his line and dropped his ends back and Lesterville found the going harder. Finally, transferring her attention to the center of the line, she was halted on the twenty-eight yards and forced to kick. A short punt across the field was captured by Cottrell, and that youth punted on first down from his five-yard line, the ball going to midfield. Lesterville got off a short forward pass that just failed of giving her her distance and followed it with a fierce attack on the center. A penalty for off-side set her back and, after another attempt at a forward pass, which grounded, she punted to Clearfield’s twenty-three. There Hansard caught and, with good interference, ran back nearly to midfield. With N. Beaton and Lanny alternating, Clearfield secured first down on plunges between guards, a fake-kick play fooling the opponent badly. Lesterville was set back five yards for holding. Cottrell, on a quarterback run, squirmed outside of tackle for four yards, Beaton plunged at right guard for two more and Lanny made the distance on a run outside left tackle. A second attempt at the same wing netted two, a plunge at center was thrown back and Cottrell passed forward to Merrick for seven. Beaton gained two through left guard. With the ball near her thirty yards, Lesterville tightened and after two attempts which gained but half the distance Clearfield punted across the line.

Merrick was off-side on the next scrimmage and Clearfield was set back. Lesterville worked a double pass and gained six around Merrick’s end. On the fourth down, with half a yard to go, the Lesterville quarter fumbled and the ball went to the Purple. Lanny got away around left end for seven, Beaton made two through right guard and Lanny shot around right end for four. He was roughly tackled and Clearfield called for time while he got his breath back. The pigskin was now on Lesterville’s fourteen yards and the Clearfield partisans were demanding a touchdown. A forward pass, Beaton to Felker, from kick formation, gained five yards, Felker being tackled on the side line and thrown out. Time was again called, the right end having had most of his breath knocked out of him. From the nine-yard line Lanny dashed around left end for a scant yard and placed the pigskin in front of goal. Morris Brent replaced Beaton at fullback. A fake kick, Hansard carrying the ball, gained two yards off left tackle, and on fourth down, with two to go, Haley snapped to Morris who lifted the ball over the cross-bar from the twenty-yard line. Clearfield 3; Lesterville 0. The quarter ended after the kick-off, the ball down on Clearfield’s eighteen yards.

Dick took Morris Brent out and put Nelson Beaton back. Several of the Clearfield players showed signs of wear, but there were no serious injuries. The second period was all Lesterville’s, for Clearfield lost the ball on a fumble by Hansard soon after the quarter started and the adversary recovered it on the Purple’s fifteen-yard line. Lesterville in the stand and around the field shouted delightedly as the big fullback plunged straight through Haley for half the distance to goal. A second attempt at the center, however, gained less than a yard, and the Lesterville left half fell back as if to try a drop-kick. Clearfield, though, was not to be fooled and the quick plunge by right half at the left of the line was stopped for no gain. This time, on the fourth down, the ball really went back to the kicker, but the pass was low and the ball failed to go over the bar.

Clearfield failed to gain, with Lanny carrying the ball, around her left end and Cottrell punted. The ball went high and was caught on Clearfield’s thirty-four yards. From there, by means of a forward pass which gained twelve yards straight across the middle of the line, and attacks between guards, Lesterville worked back to the Purple’s twelve yards. A penalty for holding set her back fifteen. A forward pass failed and a double-pass behind the line netted four yards. Then a skin-tackle play got through for four more and a massed attack at center gave the enemy first down on Clearfield’s eleven yards. Again, however, Clearfield dug her toes and repelled three attempts for a total loss of five yards, and once more Lesterville attempted a goal from the field, and once more a poor pass upset her calculations. This time the ball bounded back from a charging Clearfield lineman and the Lesterville quarter fell on it on the Purple’s twenty-three yards. A fake-kick followed by a run around the left of her line brought Lesterville to the fifteen. A forward pass was tried, but Clearfield spoiled it. A plunge at Haley gained a yard and Lesterville sent her left half into kicking position. The pass was again too low and the line failed to hold and the left half hurled the ball across the field to an end. Gordon Merrick put the end out, however, and the pigskin grounded and went to Clearfield. The latter’s attempts to circle the ends gained little, as did a plunge at the center, and Cottrell punted to the enemy’s forty-five-yard line. The Lesterville quarter was downed for no gain. Lesterville plugged the line again and the half ended with the ball in her possession on the Purple’s thirty-two yards.

Haley, Cable and Hansard had been pretty roughly used, the latter having sustained a strained ankle. Dick substituted Brimmer at center, Robey at left guard and McCoy at right half. Tupper was recovering from an injured knee sustained in practice and Dick was loath to risk him. The third quarter began well for the visiting team, for a fumble on her twenty-four yards lost Lesterville possession of the ball. Cottrell sent Lanny at left guard and gained three yards and then hurled the ball across to Merrick, who had got free. But the throw was too short and lost a down. A delayed pass to McCoy opened a hole at center and McCoy got through for four. Beaton went back as if to punt and Cottrell dashed straight ahead for the remaining distance. Beaton, however, was hurt, a Lesterville player having charged into him rather more roughly than the occasion demanded, and had to retire. Lanny drew the umpire’s attention to the offense, but that official claimed not to have witnessed it. Morris Brent took Beaton’s place.

With the ball on the home team’s thirteen yards, Morris went back to kicking position and Cottrell skirted the left end for two yards, being downed near the side line. A criss-cross, with the ball going to McCoy, lost three, and again Morris went back. But once more the play was a fake; and Lanny got five yards past right tackle. On fourth down there was still four to go and Morris stationed himself on the twenty-yard line. Brimmer, however, passed miserably and the ball struck the ground a yard in front of the fullback. Morris got it on the bound but it was then too late to kick. Eluding one of the opposing ends who had almost reached him, Morris dashed away toward the left of his line. Lanny ran with him and put out one of the enemy. But Morris found no chance to turn in and was finally brought down on the ten-yard line by a terrific tackle that left him half-stunned. Time was called and Lanny again appealed to the officials. But neither umpire nor referee would allow that the tackle had been unfair. Morris, groaning with pain, pointed to his leg and Dick’s heart sank. Quickly he was lifted up and carried off the field and Abbey, a third-string substitute, was put in his place.

Lesterville got her backs working finely and forced her opponent back into her own territory before the tide turned. Then a penalty for off-side and a signal that went wrong necessitated a punt and the ball again changed hands. But there was no further threatening of either goal and the quarter ended.

In the fourth period young Hull went in for Cottrell, Bryan took Merrick’s place, Felker gave way to Toll and A. Beaton to Kent. With eight substitutes in the line-up, things looked bright for Lesterville. But Lesterville, too, had been forced to make some changes, and the teams which battled through the final fifteen minutes proved, after all, very evenly matched. The new linemen gave good accounts of themselves and Perry Hull ran the eleven brilliantly. The playing, which had slowed down in the third quarter, was speeded up again and it was soon seen that Clearfield was getting the jump on her opponent. Hull mixed his plays well and at the end of five minutes Clearfield was once more knocking at the enemy’s portal. But, although, she managed to get the pigskin to the eight yards, there was no one to try a field-goal and Hull’s attempt at a forward pass over the line failed. Lesterville worked back to midfield, was held there and tried a forward pass which McCoy captured. Another slow but certain advance toward the Lesterville goal reached the twenty-yard line. There a fumble lost the Purple possession of the ball and Lesterville punted on second down. Hull caught and wormed his way past the enemy for fifteen yards. A forward pass gained twelve yards and first down. McCoy battered his way through for eight and Lanny gained the rest. The ball was back on the opponent’s eighteen yards again and Clearfield cheered madly and shouted “Touchdown!” at the top of her lungs. But the Purple was playing against time now and there was but a scant two minutes left. Lanny struck the left of the line for a slight gain and got so roughly treated that time was called while he was taken out, remonstrating, and Tupper put in. Another attempt at the right of the line by McCoy gained three and then Tupper was given a chance to show what Morris’s teaching had done for him. But although Brimmer managed to pass fairly well and the Purple line held like a wall, Tupper’s drop-kick went two yards wide of the goal and Lesterville fell on it for a touchback. Then, after one scrimmage, the whistle shrilled and the game was over, Clearfield the victor by one goal from the field.

Clearfield at large was well enough satisfied with that result, in spite of the fact that several of the players were suffering minor injuries which would keep them out of practice for several days. For it was realized that not only had Coach Lovering used many substitutes but that he had succeeded in winning without divulging a single new play, which, since rumor had it that Springdale scouts had been seen there that afternoon, was considered a fine bit of fortune. But Dick himself was far from satisfied with the way things had turned out, although he kept that dissatisfaction to himself. He and Morris Brent were both pretty uncommunicative on the trip back. They sat together, with George Cotner on Morris’s other side, and, although Morris summoned a smile when fellows asked how he felt, an attentive study of his countenance might have revealed the fact that his cheerfulness was assumed and that all the way back to Clearfield he was suffering pain. And although when they changed cars at Town Square Morris managed to walk without much wincing it was seen that Dick and George Cotner helped him in and out of the cars. At the corner of E and Sawyer Streets they alighted, now, since the other fellows were no longer present, attempting no disguise of the effort it cost the injured boy to get from the car to the sidewalk. Dick hurried around up E Street to his house and was soon back with Eli. Into the runabout Morris was assisted, George Cotner drew back and Eli jogged slowly and carefully out Sawyer Street toward Brentwood. For a block or two the occupants of the car were silent. Then it was Morris who spoke:

“Of all the rotten luck!” he declared bitterly.