The Portland daily press., 1897-11-22

and half to play in the second half and
it was so dark that from the side lines
the players in the middle Of the field
could hardly be seen. This chance to
score came on fiuke on Bangor's part
and Dillon seized the chance and was
speeding away for the goal line and had
nearly reached it when he was tackled
by Hal Hunt of Bangor just before he
crossed the line. With the ball in Port
lands hands and only foot or so from
the goal line the game came to an end.
1t was humiliating defeat because the
Portland team was confident of victory
and tonight a more unhappy and discour-
aged lot of boys it would be hard to find
in the state Of Maine.
At three O'Clock when the game was
called the gridiron at Maplewood park,
hard frozen and with Elittle spots of ice
scattered over Its surface, was surrounded
by yelling and enthusiastic crowd Of
Bangor rooters. Every person in that
crowd wore q little knot of red ribbon
pinned in some conspicuous place. There
were girls there from the Bangor High
school in a big blackboard decorated with
red and some of these fair supporters of
the Bangor team wore entire costumes of
red. Every other man or boy in the crowd
had u tin horn and was blowing it at the
full power of his lungs during greater
part of the afternoon
In this sea of red the few Portla nd
.rooters' seemed lost but what they
lacked in numbers they made up in yell
ing when they had chance, which was
not often. Chief Gilman of the Bangor
police department was on hand with n
squad of officers and kept the big crowd
behind the ropes, giving the footballists
a clear field. These arrangements were
superb and merit great deal of praise.
Some delay WAS oocasioned by the alb
sence Of an official but finally Mr.. Bird of
Maine State University was selected as
referee and at 10 O'Clock, about the time
the sun was sinking beneath the tree tops
of the Penobscot hills the whistle was
sounded for the commencement of the
game. Portland had the ball for the kick
off and Bangor chose the western goal
throwing the sun in Portland's eyes.
Underwood began proceedings by punting
to Hunt on Bangor's fifteen yard line and
having taken it up to the twenty five
yard line the crack Bangor man was
nailed by a fine tackle by Wentworth
On the line up Bangor was given five
yards more for off-side play and the very
next thing Howard made a twenty yard
run around Dillon's end on criss cross
Conners and Hunt got five yards between
them and then Portland was again
penalized and Bangor got ten yards for
off-side play. After this Bangor sent her
heavy backs through Portland's lines
as water goes through q sieve BY criss
cross and centre plays Hal Hunt finally
made two runs netting twenty five yards
and landed the ball on Portland's five
yard line. Here Portland braced up and
held them we'll for a minute but Conners
was finally pushed through the center and
over the line for Bangor's first touch
down. 1t took Bangor just fourteen min
utes to make this touchdown and there
were SO many "time OUTS for injuries
and protests against decisions that it
seemed much longer than this. The Ban
gor crowd had not been anticipating
such an easy thing and the people simply
went wild, dashed over the ropes on the
side lines and acted like crazy people.
Hunt failed at an easy goal and the score
now stood Bangor 4, Portland O.
Underwood kicked to Bridges on Ban
gors fifteen yard line and by the exoe1-
lent interference which lined up about
him he carried the ball to the thirty five
yard line with ease. Hal Hunt imme-
Giately commenced his end oircling and
carried the sphere to the centre of the
field. Portland could not get in on Ban
gor's interference and with the ball in
ten yards every time.
In the centre of the field the ball went
TO Portland for off-side play. The first
ching that Portland did with the ball in
her hands was to tumble it and it rolled
back eighteen or twenty yards where
Conners Of Bangor fell on it. Bangor in
the very next line up lost the ball on a
tumble and by trying the centre Under
wood in two attempts made four yards.
To save the ball from going to Bangor
on downs Wentworth tried the half back
kick. The ball landed squarely in the
arms of Bridges ten yards away and it
was Bangor's bali in the centre of the
field again.
Only a few m nutes remained of the
first half and these the Bangor boys i'm
proved, carrying the ball by q succession
of end runs and centre plays to Port
lands twenty yard line. The Portland
defense was very weak and Bangor
worked the moss covered criss cross three
or four times in succession. At the be-
ginning OF the second half the cry of
Portland was "Wait until we get the
hall" Though this half was much bet
fer played Portland didn't accomplish
much and with the ball in her hands
made very poor attempts to gain ground
with it, All of Portland's fancy plays
were worked when they got the chance
but they were SO poorly executed that
nothing was made by them. On defensive
work Portland did better but the right
tackle and left end were weak spots
where Bangor gained with ease on every
play. Hunt kicked off for Bangor at the
beginning Of the second half. Twitohell
ca9eht the ball on Portland's fifteen yard
line but dropped it again. The sphere
.1Iaa to Port,iaDd,s frzov&v rord line