Football -- Juvenile fiction; Phillips Exeter Academy -- Juvenile fiction; Schools -- Juvenile fiction
The team was going now with the momentum of success and hope. Buist
drove his way through behind Laughlin. Wendt found a hole inside left
end, Jackson called back his right tackle and sent him through the left
side for a decided gain; then he brought back the left tackle, and
apparently started a similar play for the other side. The interference
charged hard and fought desperately as they struck the line, but the
ball was not with them. Jackson, after pretending to pass to the tackle,
had held it a moment and tossed it to Wendt, who sped through the centre
unexpected, and with Wolcott at his side, and Read, the Seaton end, not
far away, seemed for a moment likely to get by the last Hillbury back
and score a touchdown. Wendt, however, slowed down to let Wolcott
interfere, and a Hillbury pursuer overtook him and laid him low.
“Twenty yards now to a touchdown,” said the Harvard student on Mr.
Lindsay’s right. “They’ll make it in about six downs if they can only
hold the ball.”
Mr. Lindsay nodded and smiled. He still disapproved, but he was enjoying
where he could not wholly understand and did not at all wish to enjoy.
He turned to his friendly neighbor with a question on his lips, but
before the question was out, the game again drew his whole attention and
that of his neighbor. In some strange way the ball had slipped from the
grasp of the Seaton back, and the quick Hillbury tackle had thrown
himself upon it. The blue-stockinged back, who had been playing far in
the rear, came running up to the Hillbury line, while Jackson turned and
scampered back to the centre of the field. A groan ran along the Seaton
benches; the ball was Hillbury’s!
“What a rotten fumble!” ejaculated the Harvard student. “Who made it,
Bill?”
“Milliken,” snapped back the disgusted Bill. “He ought to be hung!”
On the field no one asked that question, but the men in the line said
things under their breath; and sore at heart that the fruit of their
toil should be lost just as it seemed within their grasp, turned
discouraged but dogged to their defensive game. “Never mind, fellows,”
rang out Laughlin’s voice. “We can hold ’em. Get into the game, every
man. Watch the ball!” And they stooped to their places, determined to
hold the ground they had gained.
The first attack was straight at centre, but the Seaton trio played low,
and the Hillbury runner struck a wall and stopped short. Then came a
double pass for an end run by Joslin, the speedy back; but Hendry, the
Seaton tackle, burst through and drove the runner into Read’s arms with
a loss of a yard. So Hillbury was forced to punt, Jackson got under the
ball in the centre of the field, and was downed in his tracks by the
Hillbury end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account