A Quarter-Back's Pluck: A Story of College FootballChadwick, Lester
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A Quarter-Back's Pluck: A Story of College Football
Chadwick, Lester
College sports -- Juvenile fiction; Football players -- Juvenile fiction
"No," said Phil shortly. "There's no need to change them. I'll use the
same ones."
"Time's almost up," remarked the coach, looking at his watch for about
the fifth time within two minutes.
To the lads it seemed as if they had not had more than a minute's
respite, but they were ready for the fray again, and there was an
eagerness in the manner in which they leaped out on the gridiron which
betokened that snappy playing would follow.
Nor was it long in coming. When Boxer Hall kicked off, amid the chorus
of a spirited song, Kindlings caught the ball, and came back with it on
such a rush, and so well protected by his teammates, that he got past
the center of the field before he was downed. Then at the line went the
Randall lads. Smashing through it, there was no stopping them. Right up
the field they came, surprising even their own coach by their steady
advance. Phil was handling the players with a skill he had never shown
before. Play after play he called for, and the lads responded with vim.
Even a risky on-side kick was tried and was successful. Then a forward
pass netted fifteen yards, and with joy in their hearts the Randall lads
saw themselves approaching their opponent's goal-line.
"Now, boys, play like Trojans!" cried Phil heartily, this being the
signal for four sequence plays. They were ripped off one after the
other, so quickly that, as Holly Cross said, "it made the hair of the
Boxers stand up." For, almost before the visitors were aware of it,
though they tried their best to stem the human tide, the ball was only a
few feet from the line.
"Touch-down! Touch-down! Touch-down!" implored the cheering throng.
"Touch-down it shall be!" whispered Phil fiercely, and he snapped the
ball to Holly Cross, who went through like a battering ram. There was a
mass of players on top of him, the ball and the line. Not until they got
up could it be seen if the pigskin was over. The referee rushed in.
Slowly the players disentangled. The ball was over the line!
"Touch-down!" fairly screamed Tom Parsons. "Touch-down!"
His cry was echoed from the Randall grandstands, and Dutch Housenlager
began a dance around the team, carrying Holly Cross, Grasshopper and the
Jersey twins with him.
"Kick the goal, and we'll be one point ahead of them!" cried Bricktop
Molloy to Holly. "Put all the power ye have to spare into your toe, me
lad, and boost the ball over."
"I'll try," promised the captain, but the wind had increased, and the
pigskin struck the bar and bounded back. But the score was tied, and
Randall felt that she was coming into her own.
"Fast and snappy play, now!" called Phil Clinton, and once more he
passed his hand over his head. There was an air of desperation about
him, and Tom noticed it.
"Maybe he's feeling sick," he thought, and he hurried over to his chum
and asked him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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