Coach Morton drew in his breath sharply. Referee Henderson had just signaled to Badger, acting captain for the home team, and Halsey, captain of the Cobbers, to come in for the toss. The players halted in their work to await the result of that toss.
"You call, Halsey," nodded Ben Badger.
"Up!" warned the referee, and flipped the coin.
"Tails!" sang Captain Halsey.
"Heads it is," announced Referee Henderson.
Ben Badger grinned.
"It"s all starting _our_ way," clicked d.i.c.k Prescott, in an undertone.
He seemed lost in a transport of ecstasy.
CHAPTER XV
GRIDLEY FACES DISASTER
"We"ll kick from the north end," announced Captain Badger, promptly.
With a grunt of satisfaction, Gridley loped off for its positions.
The band broke loose in a wild hurrah of a tune. Spectators belonging to both sides took up a wild cheer until the referee raised his right hand for silence. The opposing teams were lined up.
Darting forward to center field the referee placed the ball, then ran backwards off the gridiron.
His whistle went to his lips. It was an instant of strained attention.
Trill-ll! It was not a cheer, but a subdued, breathless gasp that rose from the two camps of fans as the opposing lines rushed at each other. d.i.c.k could not help a slight groan, for Adams, of Cobber, reached the pigskin first. But Adams kicked it off over the line. Here was Gridley"s prompt chance.
Evans kicked the ball from the twenty-five-yard line. It was stopped by Huddleston, who started to run with it. Luckless plan!
Gridley"s line came thundering down upon him almost ere Huddleston had stepped off! b.u.mp! The combatants piled into and over each other. Huddleston was downed on his fifty-yard line. At this instant d.i.c.k bethought himself. Placing his mouth to the megaphone, he roared:
"H.S. cheer!"
It rolled out with full volume while the referee was placing the ball. By the time it died out Cobber"s captain could be heard calling:
"Four---nine---thirty-three---eight!"
Trill-ll!
Here, the heavier boys from Cobber began to do their fine work, and Gridley hearts sank.
Cobber made a first down on three plays. It ended in a bad fumble, however, for steady Thompson went down over the ball on the Gridley forty-five-yard line.
"H.S. cheer once more!" bellowed d.i.c.k.
The High School boys and girls answered with a will, drawing it out so long as to cause the referee to frown. When it ended Badger"s signals ripped out fast and clear.
The ball came back to Quarter-back Winters. He started Gridley faces to glowing again, for Winters did one of the things that had made the team famous. This was the Gridley fake kick. With any lesser team it would have been good for twenty-five yards.
Even against the big, alert fellows from Cobber that fake kick was good for eight yards. But not yet did the full effect of the move come. For Cobber was off-side and Trent burst through the line on a spurt that was good for thirty-three yards.
Two snappy line plays followed that made the Cobber boys feel the cold sweat ooze. It would have been Gridley"s first down, but a little slip penalized the home players for fifteen yards.
Most of the people of Gridley back in the seats wore now standing up in their excitement. They had dreaded much from the bigger college boys, but now the spectators saw that Gridley could hold its own for strategy, ruse and speed.
Cobber lost its temper just a bit, now, before the smiling faces of these High School boys. Some rough playing followed, but the home boys kept their tempers.
Soon Ben Badger signaled another fake kick formation. That was Gridley"s specialty for this game, one long planned and worked for. Quarter-back Winters again got the ball. With a handsome forward pa.s.s he made it Thompson"s, and it went to the enemy"s seven-yard line.
"Question---four!" appealed Cheer-Master Prescott, through the megaphone.
Back from twenty boys on the home stand came the heavy query:
_"Where"s Cobber?
Where"s Cobber?"_
From all the rest of the H.S. fans came the roaring answer:
"Lost! Suitable reward and no questions asked!"
Then the Cobber fans hurled back this hint:
_"Brag"s a great dog, Brag"s a smart dog, Brag"s a good dog, but----- Look out for the cat!"_
Cobber now developed their own famous bulldog tactics. From the seven-yard line Gridley moved the ball less than two yards in three plays. Cobber got the ball, and then other things began to happen. Cobber"s big fellows worried the ball back for eleven yards. Then the visitors, who carried thirty per cent. more weight, began with heavy ma.s.s plays. Gridley began to go down, to double up and collapse before that heavy, rough play, in which fatigue, not speed was the object of the opponents.
It was not scientific play, but it was grueling on the High School boys. Even confident d.i.c.k Prescott"s heart began to sink. Coach Morton was breathing hard.
Unless Gridley could hold the enemy"s rush back effectively enough to get the ball once more on downs, the college boys seemed likely to rush it right over the High School goal line.
Had Cobber tried any kicks, Gridley would have had the ball, and would have known what to do with it. But Captain Halsey knew that.
He depended, now, wholly on heavy ma.s.s rushes and plays.
Yet the Gridley boys were by no means asleep---or lazy.
"I won"t tire our men all out in the first half," muttered Badger to himself. "But I won"t let them stroll through our line."
Even the heavy Cobber men, though they advanced doggedly, did not make any too great progress.
Down at the Gridley fifteen-yard line the High School boys developed their greatest stubbornness and strength. So well did they oppose the college boys that, by preventing progress in three successive plays, the home boys again got the ball. They could not move it sufficiently far forward, however. Cobber took the ball again.
"Better let up on the cheers, don"t you think, sir?" d.i.c.k inquired.