Page:The secret play (1915).djvu/269

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add to the deception, these slight shifts need not be followed by a punt. A fullback run around either end or a forward pass might follow, or the ball at the last moment might be snapped to either of the other three backs. The formation had promised well on paper and by Thursday it had proved itself.

Dick's campaign was built around Morris Brent to a large degree. Dick did not believe that his team was sufficiently powerful in rushing ability to gain with certainty through the Springdale line inside the latter's twenty yards. Nor, while he looked for some success with forward and lateral passing, did he expect to be able to cross the opponent's goal line by that style of play. It was Morris's drop-kicking he was counting on inside the enemy's twenty-yard line, and there appeared to be no good reason why that accomplished young gentleman should disappoint him. Morris was now taking his regular amount of work and had been making seven and eight goals out of ten in practice and in scrimmage with the Scrubs. What might happen, though, if Morris went stale before the game or had an off-day on the eighteenth, Dick hated to think!

He did not flatter himself that his plan was a secret from the enemy, for Springdale well knew