Quarter-Back Bates

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  CHAPTER XII

  THE PHILLIPSBURG GAME

  There were not as many in attendance at the game as was usual atParkinson, although Phillipsburg was a fair-sized city and Warne onlyan overgrown town. Perhaps the fact that Phillipsburg Academy was avery long mile from the city had something to do with the meagreness ofthe audience. At all events, aside from the rival cheering sections thestands showed long empty stretches, and Cardin, who shared an end ofthe bench with Dick, resented it.

  "Guess they must think this is a practice game," he grumbled.

  "Well, Mr. Driscoll seems to think so, too," said Dick. "He says we'reall to have a show before it's over."

  "He'll forget that, though," replied the other pessimistically, "whenwe need a score to tie or something. Coaches are always making crackslike that and then forgetting 'em. Bet you I won't get in, Bates, andbet you you won't."

  Dick shook his head. "I might bet about you, but I wouldn't wager anold straw hat on my chances. Still, he _said_ we would. There we go!"

  Long, who was at right half, had pulled down the home team's kick-offand started across the field with the ball, but the advance wasshort-lived, for a speedy Phillipsburg end soon had him, and it wasParkinson's ball on her twenty-two yards.

  Kirkendall shot through the enemy left for three and then lost halfthe distance on a similar attempt. Stone punted to the Phillipsburgforty, a high kick that found both Peters and Furniss waiting when itcame down. The catcher was downed in his tracks. Phillipsburg startedin merrily with a twenty-yard pass diagonally across her line, butPeters smashed it aside and the ball went back. A second forward, thistime to the opposite side, grounded, for Warden had run the receiverfar out of position. Phillipsburg stabbed the Parkinson centre oncein a half-hearted way and got a bare four feet and then punted. Theball, rising near the thirty yards, corkscrewed beautifully down to theopposite thirty-five where Warden got it but was stopped immediately.On the exchange Parkinson had gained ten yards. Kirkendall smashed thecentre and got two, Warden added three and Stone again punted.

  This time he managed a better ball, for it had both height anddistance and was nicely placed in the left-hand corner of the field.With Peters and Furniss both on his heels, the Phillipsburg quartermade no attempt to catch, and it was Furniss who finally seized thebounding oval and downed it on the enemy's twenty-seven. Phillipsburgsplit her line and shot the quarter through on a tricky dash thatfooled the opponent nicely. When the quarter was stopped he hadreeled off twelve yards and the ball was close to the boundary. ThePhillipsburg rooters cheered lustily. An attempt to advance on theshort side was foiled and the ball was paced in. On second downPhillipsburg was caught off-side and set back. A run half across thefield netted but four yards and Phillipsburg punted from near herthirty-five, the ball going out at the visitor's forty.

  Kirkendall got clean away on the first run from kick formation and,with excellent interference, put eighteen yards behind him. Long wasstopped and Warden made three. Kirkendall, again called on, tried lefttackle and managed to make three more. Stone again punted.

  On the side-line Coach Driscoll was frowning intently. Dick, noting,thought he understood. He had heard the final instructions in thegymnasium and recalled the coach's words distinctly: "Keep out oftheir line, Stone, until you're certain you can't get your distance anyother way." Now Stone seemed to have forgotten those instructions, fornot once had a forward-pass been tried, while at least a half-dozenplays had been aimed inside the Phillipsburg tackles. Dick didn't seewhat Bob Peters had gained by giving the kick-off to the enemy andthen promptly punting the ball back into her hands, nor what Stone'sidea was in kicking regularly on third down, irrespective of thedistance lacking. However, it was possible that Stone had something uphis sleeve, and when Phillipsburg had failed at a well-tried "bunch"forward and been stopped at the opponent's left end and had puntedto mid-field, Dick looked for another forward-pass. But it didn'tmaterialise. Instead, Stone tried a delayed pass and got away with theball very neatly along the left side. But an obstreperous Phillipsburglineman wormed through and nailed him short of any gain. Kirkendallagain retired to kicking position and, with the ball snuggled, shotoff at a tangent for the enemy's right. But the play worked less wellthis time. The interference was split and a Phillipsburg half nailedKirkendall three yards past the line. Then the delayed forward-passcame and Warden tossed across to Peters. Peters tipped the throw butlost it. Again Stone punted, this time making a miserable failure of itand landing the ball but twenty yards away. It descended in the midstof a pushing crowd of opponents, leaped toward the side-line and wasfinally landed a few feet away.

  For another three or four minutes the play hovered about midfield,neither side showing any indication of a consistent attack, and thenthe whistle blew. Coach Corliss summoned Cardin to him. Dick watchedthem in conversation a bit enviously. Then Cardin sped on, followed byBartlett, a right guard, and Gross, a left tackle.

  When play began again Stone was somewhat dourly looking on from thebench and Cardin was in command. Phillipsburg had made no changes.Phillipsburg shot a breath-taking forward from her thirty-seven yardsto Parkinson's thirty-five, but, although it deserved to succeed,Bob Peters had his man guarded too closely and the pass grounded. Asecond attempt on a third down went better and Phillipsburg got sevenyards, three more than needed. Then, on her forty-five, she startedan advance that only slowed when she was under the Brown-and-White'sgoal. Two forward-passes, each short but certain, took her well pastmidfield. After that two tricky split-plays let her clever quarterthrough for scandalous gains, and, almost before Parkinson realisedwhat was happening, the ball was on the Brown-and-White's twenty-one.There was much shouting from the stands, much anxiety on the benchesas Phillipsburg stabbed the line once for practically no gain and thendropped a tackle back to kicking position.

  "Any fool could make a goal from there," growled "Tip" Harris, who,deposed from left tackle position, had seated himself beside Dick."It's dead in front of goal and not thirty yards!"

  "But do they mean to try?" asked Dick. "Seems to me one of those shortforwards of theirs----"

  "Yes, but I guess they want the three points, Bates. There's a lotin getting first blood. Say, he doesn't act as if he meant to kick,though! By jiminy----" Tip raised his voice imploringly: "Watch a run,Parkinson! Watch that man, Bob!"

  Mr. Driscoll, nearby, turned disapprovingly. "Cut that, Harris," heordered. Tip subsided, muttering. From the teams came many warnings:"Hold that line, Phillipsburg! Hold that line!" "Break it up! Blockthis kick, Parkinson!" "Watch that half!" "Signals! Signals!" "Comeon! Here we go!"

  Back shot the ball to the tall tackle's waiting hands. The linesplunged and heaved. The tackle swung a long leg under him. But the ballhadn't left his hands, and now, pushing it into the crook of his leftelbow, he sprang off to the left, the other backs closing in abouthim. As quickly as he had started, he stopped, swung directly aboutand, with two Parkinson men trying to reach him past his interference,raised the pigskin on high and threw far and swiftly. Thirty yardsaway a Phillipsburg end was streaking toward the corner of the field.Now he was past the line, well into the end zone, and not an opponentwas near him. Straight for his upstretched hands flew the ball, like abrown streak, and not until too late did Parkinson see her danger. Thenhalf a dozen of her defenders sprang toward the lone enemy. But thedeed was done. Into his hands settled the ball, he turned on his heeland plunged toward the goal and when he had been rescued from underthree brown-and-white legged opponents the pigskin was half-way betweenside-line and nearer goal-post.

  Phillipsburg waved and cheered, and stood on the seats and howled,while from across the gridiron came a fainter but defiant "Parkinson!_Parkinson!_ PARKINSON!" Mr. Driscoll turned his countenance to thebench and shook his head, smiling ruefully. "Half our team asleep,fellows," he said. "Scoville, go in for Furniss! Warm up, Gaines!"

  Phillipsburg missed a fairly easy goal after the touchdown and playbegan again in midfield. There was no more scoring in
the quarteralthough Gaines, restored to his place at half, twice almost got clear.Under Cardin's direction, Parkinson thrice tried forward-passes and butonce succeeded. Then Gaines, catching, reeled off a dozen yards beforehe was forced out of bounds. The half ended with the score still 6-0.

  There was some hard, plain talk in the gymnasium for the Parkinsonaudience. Mr. Driscoll was far from pleased and he didn't hesitate tomake the fact known. "You fellows have been taught football for twoyears, some of you longer, and yet you went out there and just stoodaround all during the first period. That sort of thing won't win games!Do something! Try something! If you can't do anything else, worry youropponent. All you did was to hand him the ball back. Stone, a lot ofthat was up to you. You had your instructions to try out your overheadgame, and your running game, and what did you do? You went at theline every time you got the ball! Now I'm going to start in with thebeginning of this last half and use the bench. If you don't want toget licked, use your heads and play football! You can score if you tryhard enough. You ought to score at least twice. And if you let thosefellows get close enough to your goal to pull another of those forwardsover the line you deserve to lose! You were all asleep, every man Jackof you! Long, where were you when that happened? And you, Gross? Andyou, Stone? Someone's got to watch the end of the line, fellows! Youcan't all go off visiting like that! You've each got a duty to performon every play and you each know it, but just because the other fellowpulls something you haven't met up with since last year you forgeteverything and go straggling after him to see what he'll do! You stayin position after this, no matter what the other fellow does. Anotherthing--and I'm aiming this at you, Wendell, more than anyone--watchyour hands. The rules require that no part of your body shall be aheadof the line of scrimmage. If the umpire was strict he'd have called youoff-side twenty times. Keep your arms down and your hands back untilthe ball's in play. After that I don't care how fast you bring themup. Now, then, we're going to play fast ball this half. Pryne, you'requarter. Keep the team on the jump every minute. Start your signal theminute the whistle blows and make your men hustle to positions so thatthe play can snap off quickly. You've been loafing for two periods.Now I want to see some _work_! I want a score inside the next twelveminutes. Here's the line-up."

  That the coach meant to "use the bench" was very evident. Of theoriginal starters only three remained, Kirkendall, Upton and Peters.Save for the former, the backfield was all new: Pryne at quarter,Skinner and Curtis at half: and in the line were five second- andthird-string players. That Parkinson could win with that aggregationwas far too much to expect, and there were plenty who said so onthe way back to the field when half-time was over. Stone was stilldisgruntled and very pessimistic, and he and Cardin grumbled togetherall during the third period. Usually they had little to say to eachother, but today their wrongs drew them together.

  That third period, in spite of the "crape hangers," showed the visitingteam to far better advantage. Although, as it turned out, Parkinsonneither scored or came dangerously near scoring, she played a hard,earnest game and stopped every attempt of the opponent to get to herlast line. In the first three minutes of the quarter Phillipsburgattempted a hopeless place-kick from the thirty-eight yards, but itlanded far short, and after that her desperate forward-passes werealways spoiled. It is only fair to say that luck favoured the visitorsmore than once, however. With an even break of fortune there might havebeen a different story to relate.

  Pryne ran the team according to directions as best he could. He lackedexperience, though, and if the play went faster than before it wasdue more to the eagerness of the substitutes than to Pryne's efforts.Those substitutes did themselves proud, even if they weren't strongenough to score, and, although many fellows on the bench wished thatCoach Driscoll had cared more about winning and less about developingsubstitute material, it was generally agreed that much credit was duethe "rookies." Before the quarter was ended Captain Peters was added tothe retired list and Findley took his place.

  The third period ended with Phillipsburg making several changes,something she had refrained from doing before, and the ball inParkinson's possession on her twenty-nine yards where Skinner hadbeen downed after a punt. More changes were made. Trask went in forKirkendall and Dean for Upton, at centre, and four other substitutestrotted nervously on. One of them was Dick.