Rivals for the Team: A Story of School Life and FootballBarbour, Ralph Henry
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Rivals for the Team: A Story of School Life and Football
Barbour, Ralph Henry
Adventure stories; Boarding schools -- Juvenile fiction; Football stories
In the second set Cathcart won the second and fourth on his service
and then, losing the sixth to Hugh, took advantage of the latter’s
momentary let-down and made the set four-all. After that, though, he
tired and Hugh had no difficulty in winning the ninth and tenth games
and capturing the set by the previous score.
Cathcart agreed to play again Saturday morning, but begged off the next
day, having discovered some work he ought to do. Hugh took Ned Stiles
on instead, but had poor sport.
The St. James game in the afternoon was a rattling good one. For the
first time that season Coach Bonner put his full strength into the
field at the start. Dresser was at left end, Franklin at left tackle,
Kinley at left guard, Musgrave at center, Driver at right guard,
Trafford at right tackle, Tray at right end, Blake at quarter, Winslow
at left half, Vail at right half, and Keyes at full. St. James was
a heavy team, averaging a year more in age, perhaps, and surely ten
pounds more in weight, and played close-formation football in a very
clever manner. Grafton’s game this year, so far as one could determine
at this stage, was to be a combination of wide-open and old-style
football. She had an experienced trio in Musgrave, Driver and Trafford,
a fair guard in Kinley and a good tackle in Franklin. Roy Dresser, at
left end, was almost certain of his position, but Tray, on the other
wing, was less satisfactory. In the back-field, Blake and Winslow had
seen two years of service on the first and second teams, Vail was a
newcomer in football, although a senior, and Keyes had made the team at
the end of the preceding season. The back-field was rather lighter than
Mr. Bonner could have wished for, but it was fast and “scrappy.” So far
it gave promise of being a good defensive eleven, with its offensive
abilities still to be proved.
Today’s game showed up many weak points, for St. James was a hard
enough proposition to cause Grafton to make use of everything she
knew. It was St. James who scored first, shortly after the kick-off,
when Nick misjudged a punt in front of his goal and a brown-stockinged
player fell on the pigskin near the twenty-yard line. Grafton gave back
slowly, but the visitors made it first down on the nine yards. Then two
tries failed to gain more than as many feet and the St. James full-back
booted the ball over very prettily.
Grafton came back hard and forced the playing for the remainder of the
period but was unable to get a score. In the second quarter, Nick began
a march from the middle of the field to the Brown’s goal that would not
be denied and Keyes was eventually pushed over for a touchdown. Keyes
failed at the goal. St. James gained on rushes against Kinley when she
got the ball back, but the half ended with the score 6 to 3 in the
home team’s favor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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