Rivals for the Team: A Story of School Life and FootballBarbour, Ralph Henry
General
Rivals for the Team: A Story of School Life and Football
Barbour, Ralph Henry
Adventure stories; Boarding schools -- Juvenile fiction; Football stories
Second kicked off and Nick ran back to the forty-five yards, through
most of the second team. Then two line plays were stopped for small
gains and Keyes threw forward to Tray near the second’s thirty-five
and the right end made a clever running catch and added another five
yards of territory before Myatt downed him. With time almost up and the
ball on the second’s thirty, Nick again called for a forward, but this
time the ball grounded. A skin-tackle around Spalding netted four yards
and Keyes plunged through Longley for two more. Keyes then went back
to drop-kick and when the ball shot to him the first team’s left side
crumbled badly and Bowen hurled himself through and blocked. The ball
trickled up the field to the twenty yards before Zanetti fell on it.
Two wide sweeps by Keyes around the left end gained but four and once
more he tried for a field goal. But the angle was extreme and the ball
went astray.
Longley kicked off to Zanetti, who caught on his fifteen, fumbled,
recovered and was thrown by Forbes and promptly sat on by Hugh. The
first got to the twenty yards on two plunges and Keyes punted. Hugh,
playing back with Ayer, caught near his forty and ran across the
field, avoiding the first team’s left end, and Ayer and Forbes formed
into interference and disposed of two of the enemy. Hugh was still
running toward the other side line, zig-zagging miraculously between
his foes. Thrice he was almost caught and thrice he managed to escape.
Then his interference went to pieces and he was speeding down the
field some five yards from the side line with not one chance in ten of
getting away. A first team tackle dived and missed, Hanser loomed in
his path and Hugh went around him like a frightened rabbit and suddenly
only Nick was left to contend against, Nick running fast a few yards
behind and gaining a little at every stride.
Near the twenty-five yards Hugh shot a quick glance behind him and
then, with an unexpected increase of speed, cut across in front of Nick
just out of reach and headed straight for the goal. Zanetti and others
were trailing along some ten yards back and this change of direction
brought them nearer their prey, and Zanetti took courage and sprinted.
But it was Nick who was destined to save the day for the first. Try as
he might, Hugh couldn’t shake him off, and just short of the twelve
yards it was all over. Nick’s arms slipped around Hugh’s knees and all
the latter could do was hug the ball very tightly and go down. And as
he did so he heard Nick’s voice.
“Sorry,” panted Nick, “but――I――gotter――do it!”
Although second lined up quickly and shot Manson at the center, it was
not destined that they were to score. Manson got a scant yard, whistle
and horn sounded together, and the game was done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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