Football -- Juvenile fiction; Friendship -- Juvenile fiction
The Harmony Tigers showed up in a big carry-all motor-van about the
time Jack and his followers trooped on the field, and began to pass
the ball around to limber up their muscles for the great test. They
were given a royal reception, for there were many hundreds of Harmony
rooters on hand to help the boys with cheers and the waving of flags
and pennants. Besides, Chester was showing a fine spirit that could
applaud a clever play, even on the part of the enemy team, though
naturally their best yells would be reserved for the home boys.
When the two teams lined up facing each other they stood as follows:
Chester Position Harmony
Jones.............. L.E ...........Osterhide
Jackman............ L.T. ............O'Leary
McGuffey........... L.G. .............Bailey
Griffin........... Center .............Chase
Hemming............ R.G. ..............Boggs
Badger............. R.T. ............Leonard
Douglas............ R.E. ...........Clifford
Hopkins............ Q.B. .....Martin (Capt.)
Mullane........... L.H.B. ............Oliver
Winters (Capt.)... R.H.B. ..........Oldsmith
Jeffries........... F.B. ..........Hutchings
Really it looked as though the Tigers outclassed their opponents at
the ratio of five to six, so far as weight and brawn went. They were
an even heavier aggregation than the Marshall team; which, by the way,
had been snowed under on the preceding Saturday to the tune of 27 to
6, the Harmony boys scoring almost at will; and this sort of
proceeding of course warned the whole Chester team, watching eagerly
from the side lines, what they would be up against when their day
came.
The game was started, and it was a seesaw affair all through the first
period, play being kept near mid-field most of the time, with the
advantage on neither side. Consequently, when after a brief
intermission to allow of any necessary changes in the formation of the
teams, not required as yet, the crowd was unable to decide where the
advantage lay. But Harmony fans kept saying that the time had not yet
come for their favorites to break loose; when it did there would be
"something doing" to make Chester folks "sit up and take notice."
This proved to be poor prediction so far as the second quarter went.
Indeed, the tide started immediately to set in the other direction.
Hopkins, quarterback for Chester, scored a touchdown in this period
that carried the crowd off its feet with excitement, it was so
cleverly done. He took a forward pass from Winters, who shot the ball
from the fourteen-yard line zone.
The defense of Harmony was all set and ready, but the artful Hopkins
must have discovered a small opening through which he managed to dash.
It was, taken altogether, a daring play, and succeeded as much from
that reason as anything else. In football the unexpected counts most,
and Harmony was certainly caught napping.
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