CHAPTER XIV.
THE FIRST QUARTER.
Warren and Forest, the Barville ends, raced along in a desperate dash,closing in as the ball began to fall. Rodney Grant was waiting for theoncoming pigskin, balanced ready for action, his arms outstretched. Hemade a clean, fair catch, and was off like a broncho of his nativestate, quirt-stung and spur-jabbed. On one side Warren was blocked off,but on the other Forest came in like a charging fury and flung himselfat the Texan. Down they went on the thirty-yard line, with the otherplayers converging toward that spot.
Remembering Stone’s admonition to hustle and line up without loss of amoment, the Oakdale boys strained every nerve to get quickly intoposition for the first scrimmage. This was their opportunity to showBarville right off the reel what real snappy aggression meant.
“Lively! lively!” urged Stone; and, ere the line of the locals seemedfully formed, Sage began barking the signal. He spat out the numberssharply, every one clear and distinct, and Oakdale went into Barvillelike a whirlwind before the visitors were fully set for defence. Theresult was a gain of eighteen yards, made in a style which seemed tocarry the Barville boys completely off their feet, with the exception ofthe sturdy fullback, Copley, who yanked down the runner and preventedwhat had promised to be a clean break through the defence, and whatmight have given the man with the pigskin a running chance to score.
The home crowd went wild over this apparently demoralizing attack of theOakdale boys, and there were many who, forming a hasty judgment,declared their conviction that the locals outclassed the visitors.
Sanger, who knew Stone as a rather slow and methodical chap, had notimagined for a moment that the Oakdale captain would spur his team to apoint of such rapid aggression. The Barville leader, however, was notslow to grasp the fact that he had made an error in judgment, and hisvoice was heard calling sharply to his somewhat disorganized men as heordered them to get into position to stop the next charge. Copley cameup somewhat dazed by the shock of the collision with the runner; but thelatter was even more dazed, and was so long about finding his place inthe formation that Barville was given sufficient time to make ready fordefence.
Three stingy yards were all Oakdale could make on another line plunge;and when, following this, a round-the-end run promised more satisfactoryresults, the argus-eyed referee dismayed the shrieking adherents of theteam by penalizing the locals for holding.
Barville took heart at once and fought Oakdale tooth and nail, until thelatter team was compelled to kick rather than take the chance of losingthe ball on downs. Stone, who had a lusty leg, booted the pigskin intothe enemy’s territory, where Larry Groove, the left halfback, scooped iton the jump, dodged Hopper, and came all the way back to the center linebefore he was slammed to the turf. Of course this gave the Barvillecrowd its chance to cheer madly, and their cries mingled with theOakdale plaudits for the tackler.
“Ginger up! ginger up!” Lee Sanger was calling, as he crouched behindBart Rock, the center. “Signal! signal!” Then he reeled off a few sharpnumbers, and the youthful contestants leaped at one another like tigers.
Again and again they crashed together, but Oakdale stubbornly held itsground until an unexpected fluke—a bad pass and a muff—gave Sage asplendid opportunity. The ball came bounding to his very feet, withRollins and Tuttle blocking off two of the enemy, the only ones whoseemed to realize just what had happened, and Fred had time to scoop theball up and a fine chance to get away with it for a run.
Instead of doing so, Sage stared for a moment at the pigskin, as if hedid not realize what it was. And when he awoke from this brief spell ofnumbness and started into life and action, it was Nelson who flunghimself on the oval, to be pinned down by Hope, who had finally buckedTuttle aside.
In this manner, through the faltering of Sage, Barville, although shelost the ball, stopped what might have been a gain of ground by thelocals.
Piper, who seemed to see everything, saw this, although he was too faraway at the time of the fumble to get his hands on the pigskin. Sleuthglared at Sage.
“Something wrong,” he panted to himself. “First time he ever did a thinglike that.”
“Wake up! wake up!” Stone was calling sharply. “Positions! Get ready!Come on, Sage, give us the signal.”
“Signal!” said Sage, and then he paused, as if collecting his thoughts.“Signal!” he repeated. “5-11-16-24.”
It was the former line-bucking play, which, through experience thusquickly obtained, Barville was ready to meet. Instead of a gain, theresult was a loss of two yards, the visitors actually bearing the lineof the home team back.
As the tangled mass of men untwined, following the blast of the whistle,Sage heard Stone calling in his ear:
“Vary it, Fred. Something else; something else, quick!”
The quarterback gave himself a shake. The men were hopping into theline-up, and the Barvilleites, now equally alert and ready, wereplanting themselves for defence. Straight old-fashioned line-bucking,with no varying plays, had already become ineffective, and Sage gave thesignal for the double pass and the criss-cross. The ball went to Nelson,who shot toward the right, Grant closing in as if to support him, butpassing across his very heels and taking the pigskin as he passed.Cooper blocked the right end off. Piper put his body into the righttackle and bore him in the opposite direction. A hole was opened atprecisely the proper moment, and through it went the Texan at fullspeed.
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THE FULLBACK CAME CHARGING ACROSS, FORCING RODNEY TOWARD THE SIDE LINE.—Page 156.]
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The main body of the enemy’s back field had been led into starting inthe wrong direction. The right halfback, who was one of these, sawthrough the play a moment too late to reach Grant. The fullback,however, came charging across, forcing Rodney out toward the side line.It seemed that the Texan would be run out of bounds, but ten feet fromthe border of the field he deceived the charging fullback by a suddenhalf-pivoting swerve, and the would-be tackler’s fingers barely scrapedhis canvas jacket as he shot by.
The crowd rose and roared, for Grant was flying over the chalk markswith giant strides, followed by the players of both teams. Head thrownback, nostrils expanded, Rodney covered the ground as if his very lifedepended on it.
“Touchdown!” howled the excited Oakdale spectators. “Touchdown!touchdown!”
There was no preventing it. Over the Barville goal line went Grant,planting the ball favorably for a goal. He did not seem to hear theschool cheer, which, with his name tagged at the end, came rollingacross the field. His manner was grim and businesslike; his attentionwas entirely centered upon the matter in hand.
There was no need to punt the ball out. Brought forth properly by thereferee, it gave Oakdale a most favorable chance to boot it over thebar, and Stone performed the trick.
As the teams changed positions on the field, the Oakdale captain foundtime to rest his hand for a moment on the shoulder of Sage and speak afew low, hasty words to him. In response Fred nodded.
Soon they were at it again, but Barville, apparently nothingdisheartened, resumed the struggle more fiercely and grimly than ever.The tide of battle ebbed and flowed, neither side gaining any greatadvantage, until presently a long, shrill blast of the whistle announcedthe end of the first scrimmage.
As the boys jogged off the field, Chipper Cooper gave Piper a slap onthe back, crying:
“Well, we put one across on ’em all right.”
“Yes,” nodded Sleuth; “but Sage lost an opportunity for us before that.He isn’t right to-day. There’s something the matter with him, or I’m adunce.”