Page:The secret play (1915).djvu/325

 field-goal was called for, and the fact that he did not start the game aroused no suspicion. Morris, blanket-wrapped, sat beside Dick on the Clearfield bench and watched moodily as Sawtell caught the kick-off some dozen yards in front of his goal and sprang forward with the ball. Merrick tried for him and missed and it was Wayland who finally locked his arms about the runner and downed him on the twenty-yard line.

Clearfield applauded the tackle and the teams faced each other. Springdale used a formation in which the ends dropped back a little and the backs made an oblique tandem behind right or left guard. A shift which placed a guard or both guard and tackle on the opposite side of the line was generally used, and sometimes the backs formed behind the long side and sometimes behind the short side, a feature which caused not a little perplexity to Clearfield during the first of the game. A split attack, the first man in the tandem going to the right, the second man straight ahead, followed by the quarter carrying the ball, and the third man to the left, was a favorite play and fooled the opponent many times. Springdale stuck to attacks between tackles all during the first period, punting when unable to gain by