“Nostrand won’t make a first-class player in a hundred years,” said
Dick with conviction, “but, unless I’m away off my track, he’s just the
fellow to run the Scrubs. He’s smart, thinks like lightning, can handle
fellows and knows the way things ought to be done even if he can’t do
them. I expect him to work out a mighty good team of what he’s got to
work on.”
Dick’s prediction proved correct, although the fact didn’t appear just
yet. On Saturday the eleven journeyed to Norrisville and played the
Norrisville Academy team. The forty or fifty supporters who made the
trip with the team scarcely looked for a victory for the Purple, for
rumor credited the Academy with being unusually strong this Fall, while
it wasn’t apparent to the Clearfield rooters that Dick’s aggregation
was one whit better than a week before. But their expressions of
resigned gloom were speedily turned to looks of surprised delight, for
Clearfield set about things in a hearty, not-to-be-denied manner that
amazed Norrisville as much as it did the Clearfield supporters.
The Purple started with Bryan, left end, Partridge, left tackle, Cable,
left guard, Haley, center, A. Beaton, right guard, Scott, right tackle,
Felker, right end, Cottrell, quarter, White, left half, Tupper, right
half and N. Beaton, fullback. There was much more coherence apparent
than there had been a week ago, although real team-play was yet to be
discovered. Cottrell ran the eleven in excellent shape and chose his
plays better than he ever had. The attack, while restricted to only a
half-dozen plays, had power and the defense really deserved the name.
Nelson Beaton, at full, was the man of the day, for he showed a quite
unsuspected ability to gain through the line and his plunges were hard
to stop until he was well into the secondary defense. At end, Felker
showed promise but was still too unaccustomed to the duties of the
position to be entirely satisfactory. Scott was weak at right tackle.
Partridge did well at left tackle and Bryan, on the wing at that end,
was almost spectacular. Just to prove that they knew something besides
hitting the line, Cottrell got three forward passes away for good gains
in the first half. Thereafter the Purple stuck to old-style football,
playing on the defensive for most of the time. For, with 17 points to
their credit against the opponent’s 6, why worry, as Chester Cottrell
put it?
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account