the nordham game had been carefully planned by mr. payson and dan. nordham had this year a light-weight team with a rather weak line and an exceptionally fast and clever back-field. on the offensive yardley was to stick largely to plays between tackles, relying on tom roeder and wallace hammel for plunges, while stearns, lighter but quicker, was expected to “knife” himself through with good effect. ridge and simms were to do the punting. field goals were outside the calculations, since no one could be depended on to perform them with any certainty. on defense it was planned to use the “basket” formation, the end dropping well back and outside the opposing flankers, the full-back playing behind center and the quarter and the two half-backs playing a deep field. this, which was practically yardley’s defense against kick formation, was to be used regularly, since the enemy had a reputation for being wonderfully tricky in her back-field. the arrangement weakened the[232] yardley line, but nordham was not thought to be heavy enough to gain by ordinary plunging tactics.
the blue started the game with the following line-up: vinton, left end; mitchell, left tackle; ridge, left guard; fogg, center; merriwell, right guard; jensen, right tackle; norton, right end; simms, quarter-back; roeder, left half-back; stearns, right half-back; hammel, full-back. it was planned to use a number of substitutes just as soon as the game had been “placed on ice.” holmes, quarter; sayer, end; greene and fayette, half-backs; marion, full-back, and fales, guard, were all likely to play one or two periods.
yardley won the toss and hammel kicked off. nordham tried the center of the yardley line in a tentative way and then punted. the kick was a beautiful one against a slight wind and almost went over simms’s head. the nordham ends came down the field like two streaks of lightning and had little trouble getting by the interference. simms made four or five yards and then went down with two nordham players on top of him. simms started right in trying out the nordham line and roeder and hammel went through for good gains. but it was necessary to punt on the third down. nordham opened up a bewildering series of attacks then. she had a quick line-shift[233] that was difficult to meet successfully and it soon became evident that the formation being used by yardley would not meet the requirements of the occasion. nordham set her whole team in motion to the right or left, as the case might be, with the runner effectually concealed until the moment came for him to “go in.” this had the effect of upsetting yardley’s formation, and twice norton was badly fooled. after nordham had barely made her distance twice, dan and simms held a consultation and the “basket” formation was abandoned, the ends playing up into the line and the halves moving closer. that worked better, but nordham had a dozen tricks up her sleeve and rattled them off so fast that yardley began to be dazed. plays that started without signals, plays in which the whole back-field moved one way and the quarter, carrying the ball, sprang around the opposite end; forward passes from kick formation, forward passes from close formation, on-side kicks and a half-dozen other plays tested the yardley secondary defense as it had not been tested all the fall. nordham’s plays were, however, all built around two players, her quarter, buckman, a human eel, and her left half-back, lishing. both were exceptionally fast starters, ran like the wind, dodged miraculously and fought like wolves when tackled. lishing was tall and[234] slim and the quarter-back was a small, wiry youngster of seventeen, red of hair and freckled of face. he wore no head guard and before the game was ten minutes old the slogan on the blue’s side was, “look for the red head!”
nordham worked the ball to the middle of the field and there a play went wrong, the runner was thrown by dan yards behind his line and nordham kicked. it was stearns’s ball over near the side-line and he had plenty of time to make the catch and get started. but there was a fumble, the nordham left end tore down, evaded norton and tackled stearns just as that youth recovered the ball. it was yardley’s ball on her fifteen yards. a plunge at the nordham left tackle netted two yards and put the ball outside. it was taken in fifteen yards and roeder struck the center of the enemy’s line for four yards. there was no great trouble getting through the first defense, but the secondary played good ball that day and time and again roeder, hammel or stearns was stopped hard just when it seemed that he was safely through. with four to go, norton dropped back to punt. a poor pass slowed him up and the kick when it got off was too low. someone, a nordham guard perhaps, leaped into the path of the ball and it thudded against his body, rebounded over the heads of the attack and trickled[235] towards the yardley goal. half a dozen players dived for it, but it was lishing who, getting through in some marvelous manner, picked it up and romped straight over the goal-line and scored a touchdown between the posts. buckman kicked an easy goal.
there was no more scoring in that period, although yardley took the ball on steady plunges to the nordham forty yards before the whistle blew. in the second period a thirty-yard run by lishing along the side-line brought the spectators to their feet. a moment or two later buckman got away around the other end and covered fifteen before he was finally stopped. with the ball on yardley’s thirty yards, nordham tried a fake kick that netted little. then buckman fell back for a try at goal from placement, although the opponents refused to believe that it would not turn out a fake. it was a bona fide attempt, however, and with a few feet more elevation it would have succeeded. as it was, the ball passed under the crossbar, and a great sigh of relief went up from the yardley supporters on the stands.
yardley chose to put the ball in scrimmage and then began an advance down the field that would not be denied. roeder and hammel went through the line time and again, and once or twice stearns got past left tackle for good gains. simms[236] worked a quarter-back run for twelve yards and placed the pigskin on nordham’s twenty-five. then roeder was called on and made eight straight through center. hammel slammed out four more. stearns was “knifed” past right guard for three. nordham rallied desperately and roeder was thrown back for a loss. it was a situation calling for a good drop-kicker and dan gritted his teeth in helplessness. simms was for giving norton a try, but dan was afraid to risk it. instead a forward pass from kick formation was tried, simms passing to dan at the side of the field. but nordham was alert and although dan made the catch nicely and started for the goal-line he was tackled for small gain and the ball went to nordham on the twelve yards. nordham kicked on first down, stearns caught in midfield and came back seven before he was stopped. from there yardley again took up her advance. nordham replaced her left guard, but yardley still went through and at last, after fourteen plays placed the ball over the line for her first score. a punt-out gave hammel a try for goal from the twenty yards, but he missed badly. nordham was still a point ahead.
but now it seemed only a question of how many more touchdowns yardley could smash out in the remaining time, for the nordham line, it was evident,[237] could not stop roeder or hammel. there was no more scoring in that period, however, and the two teams trotted off the field.
payson had his chance to talk then, and he made good use of it. nordham, he predicted, would play a kicking game for the remainder of the contest and would try field goals whenever she could. it was up to the yardley ends and half-backs, he said, to see that nordham didn’t gain on punting. “you’ve got to get that interference for the catcher working, fellows. you let their ends get by every time. you let them fool you. run them out and don’t try to spill them until you can accomplish something. norton, and you too, roeder, you go for them too near the line. several times you’ve upset those ends and they’ve picked themselves up again and gone on down the field in time to stop the runner. i’ve taught you a good interference for the man who’s running the ball back. now make it go! and one thing more, and this is for all of you fellows; keep your eye on the ball. don’t think you know what the play is going to be; don’t try to guess it; watch the ball every minute! i’ve been hammering that into you all the fall. if you don’t learn to do it now you’ll have mighty slim chances of winning from broadwood next week.”
“could we use a couple of the new plays, sir?”[238] asked simms. “that delayed pass might work well near goal.”
“no, simms, not with four broadwood scouts in the stands,” replied the coach dryly. “you’ve got plenty of plays if you make them go. stick to those. and don’t try forward passes inside the twenty-five yards, simms; these fellows are too knowing for that. plug the line and wear it out.”
the third period was the hardest fought of any. yardley made good gains through the nordham line until the twenty-five yards was reached. then nordham, playing close formation, twice held her for downs. had yardley had a player who could have kicked an easy field goal the game would have been decided then and there. nordham invariably punted out of danger on first down, and, with what wind there was still favoring her, got off kicks of forty-five and fifty yards. it was discouraging to peg half the length of the field and then be turned back on the very threshold. but that is just what happened to the visitors twice. but finally the tide of fortune turned.
nordham, gaining the ball on a fumble by hammel near the middle of the field, kicked for forty yards. simms gathered the pigskin in, recovered seven yards before he was thrown and then worked an on-side kick that, quite unexpected by[239] nordham, was recovered by dan for a gain of thirty yards.
roeder tore off ten yards on one try and hammel got six. roeder made four and stearns got through for first down. roeder, who had been worked pretty hard, showed signs of wear and fayette took his place. stearns got by left tackle for six yards and simms went five on a wide end run. fayette gained two through center and stearns was stopped on an attempt at the left end. hammel, on a double pass, made first down through right guard. the ball was now down near the enemy’s twenty yard line and near the side of the field. hammel got around on the short side of the field for twelve but was called back seven as he had stepped over the line. simms tried a wide run around the other end and made less than a yard. the ball was opposite the goal and hammel crashed through for five and made it first down. fayette got three on a “skin-tackle” play and stearns made four in the same place. hammel was given the ball then for a straight plunge at left guard and got through and staggered over the goal line for the second touchdown. dan took the ball out and tried goal, but missed it by inches. the score stood 10 to 6 in yardley’s favor. nordham kicked off from midfield and simms came back twelve before the[240] opposing ends reached him. then the whistle blew.
it was not advisable to make all the substitutions originally planned, but mr. payson sent holmes in for simms at quarter, sayer for dan and marion for hammel. two minutes after the final period commenced nordham, from a kick formation, sent her full-back around sayer for twenty yards and the stands shrieked and howled. a plunge at merriwell was repulsed and buckman, nordham’s diminutive quarter-back, squirmed through between ridge and mitchell and made seven before he was rudely sat on. it took the youngster two minutes to recover from that experience.
the ball was on yardley’s thirty-eight yards and near the side of the field. with one of her running plays in which buckman, carrying the pigskin, was hidden behind the line, nordham placed the ball five yards nearer the goal-line and directly in front of the crossbar. a half-back knelt on the turf and buckman retreated for a place-kick. the pass was good and although the entire yardley line came crashing through desperately, buckman lifted the ball neatly over the bar for three more points. with the score 10 to 9, yardley settled down to add another touchdown. stearns was injured slightly on the first[241] play and was taken out. greene took his place. the back-field was now much weaker, for neither greene nor fayette could make the holes that roeder and stearns had made. marion, at full-back, was a dependable line-bucker and it was he who made most of the gains for the next five minutes, gains which finally took the ball past the middle of the field and into nordham territory again. but unfortunately it was also marion whose fumble on the nordham forty-five yard line gave the ball to the enemy. on the first play sayer was again drawn in and lishing romped around the blue’s left end for eighteen yards amidst the wild applause of nordham partisans. buckman tried the left of the opposing line for a yard, the full-back squirmed through for three and then came one of nordham’s quick shifts and a forward pass across the field to the right end who had managed to run over undetected. that was a hair-raising moment. the end had a clear field ahead of him save for simms who was down near the twenty yards. but ridge showed a burst of speed and reached the runner near the thirty yard line and threw him hard out of bounds. the ball was brought in and it was nordham’s first down on the thirty. it was naturally to be expected that nordham would try an end run, either to place the ball in front of goal or to advance it down[242] the short side of the field. but she didn’t. the interference swept to the right, toward middle of the field, and buckman plunged straight ahead for six yards. the nordham cheers were deafening now. along the side-line mr. payson and dan paced, dan scowling and the coach imperturbable. with four to go, nordham seemingly elected to try a field goal on second down. the angle was extreme, although the distance was only about twenty-five yards. but it was a fake. the half-back who caught the ball started for a run toward the middle of the field. the opponent, however, was on guard and he was dropped by sayer for a loss of three yards. but the ball was fairly opposite the posts and again buckman stepped back and again the half knelt on the turf.
“block it!” shrieked ridge, who was field captain. “get through and block this kick!”
it was ridge himself who barely tipped the ball as it sailed away from buckman’s toe and went straight over the center of the bar. pandemonium broke loose in the nordham camp and the nordham players jumped and cavorted gleefully. there was less than four minutes of time left. in that four minutes yardley worked the ball for fifty yards without losing it once, her backs slamming at the nordham line with the desperation born of despair. and almost under the shadow[243] of the goal posts, when another four or five downs might have saved the day, the whistle blew!
“nordham 12, opponents 10,” said the score board. yardley had met her second defeat.
