Arrangements were soon made for the game to begin, Rivermouth getting the ball for the kick-off.
The teams lined up on the field as follows:
FARDALE. POSITIONS. RIVERMOUTH. Burrows Right end Rogers Stanton Right tackle Stover Douglass Right guard Twain Buckhart Snapback Price Gordan Left guard Golding Blair Left tackle Dana Kent Left end Ryan Shannock Quarter-back Mercer Nunn Right half-back Newton Merriwell Left half-back Dolby Singleton Full-back Hurting
In this arrangement of the Fardale team Buckhart, the plebe, had been placed at center, while Blair, the former snap-back, was given Brad’s position in the line. Douglass was put on the field at the very start, in the place of Eddy. This had been done through the advice of Frank Merriwell, who saw that the center of Fardale’s line had been too weak in previous games.
Of course, both men had been given practise in these positions, and Buckhart had shown that he was capable of snapping the ball handsomely, and then blocking any chargers who might try to come through him.
Blair had been a trifle too light for the center of the line, although he was a gritty fellow and quick in his work. Frank felt that he would show up better at tackle than at center.
The suits of the Rivermouth team were strong and expensive, but they showed that their owners had played more than one earnest game in them. They were not spotless and unsoiled, by any means. For once Fardale looked startlingly clean and prim in contrast to the enemy.
But this was not all. The Rivermouth team was made up mainly of players much older than the players on the Fardale eleven, and they were rather savage in their appearance. It is pretty certain that not a few of the Fardale players were overawed by the formidable appearance of their antagonists.
When the moment for play arrived, Hurting, the heavy full-back of the Rivermouth team, balanced himself, and looked hard at the ball, lying like a huge yellow egg on the center of the field. Fardale crouched for the start as Hurting began advancing on the ball.
The big fellow gaged his kick handsomely, and he smashed the oval a terrible thump.
Far over the heads of the outspread Fardale men sailed the ball, with the Rivermouth ends coming down like the wind to be on hand when it dropped. But this early exertion was lost, for Hurting’s heavy kick had sent the ball fairly over Fardale’s goal-line which made it necessary to kick off again.