Evening star., 1913-11-28

Whether OF not the Navy will win this
year Is the question for which thousands
of supporters of the Midshipmen in this
section are vainly seeking an answer.
They know that the Annapolis lads have
gone through wonderful season, but
they also realize that many times in the
past the team which has appeared strong
er has lost. At least twice in the last
four years the Army has been decided
favorite and yet the Midshipmen have
won. 1t may be that the same conditions
will prevail this time. though it seems
that the Middies have much more
powerful aggregation of players.
The foot ball season will be a failure for
the Middies unless they beat the Army.
Notwithstanding the wonderful scores
they have made against the strongest sec
ondary elevens. they will not be consid-
cred in their final summation of the sea-
sons record unless victory is secured
over the Soldiers. Without the long end
of the score In the game tomorrow the
Middies will feel their season has been
failure, and especially will that be true
of the graduating class, which has yet to
see an Army team win. The whole Naval
contingent is figuring that its
eleven will be the victor. and yet it is not
unmindful of the past failure of one or
the other OF the teams to live up to the
general predictions.
The graduating Army class has yet to
see the Soldiers win from the Navy and.
despite the apparent superiority of the
latter it's members are hoping for the
best. And there is not a lack of con-
fidence in the Army adherents. They
know that one of the best foot ball men
is directing the work of their eleven,
their coach. Daley, having ranked among
the brainiest players that ever wore
moleskins The Soldiers are also bank
ing on the old tradition that the appar-
emily weaker tteam loses. They have
had the odds in favor of them in the
past two or three years. but now that
the chances seem to favor the Midship-
men they hope that predictions will again
be upset.
The Navy has had a much better sea-
son so far than the Army and there is
no denying that on basis of compare
tive performances the Midshipmen should
win rather easily. Whether or not the
team will play in that kind of form
against the Soldiers is a question. The
Soldiers have had several narrow es-
capes from defeat, and have won at least
two contests by the barest of margins.
They lost to NOtre Dame decisively. On
the other hand. the Middies have won
every game played with the exception Of
the first, against the University of Pitts
burgh The work of the Middies in all
their games has been Of an extraordinary
character. There has not been con-
test. with the one exception, in which
they have failed to gain ground about
as they pleased. and in the majority of
them their opponents have been unable
to make any headway whatever.
The Middies have hailed their team as
one of the strongest in the country, and
it Is hard to make one of them believe
that any eleven would have more than an
even chance against them. And it is very
that il the Army is defeated the
Midshipmen's eleven will be placed on a
very high basis when compared with the
others, but If the Army wins or the game
ends in very close score it will not be
rated anywhere near as we'll
1t is certain to be great game, and it
seems to be the general opinion that the
teams VIII show more foot ball than in
the recent contests. The Army will de-
pend on what Is generally deemed
chance style of play while the Midship
men also have good variety of open
plays, though they will probably depend
for the greater part of the time on the
pounding game they have played nearly
all the season to smash their distance
to the Army goal. Then, again. the Mid
shipmen have Brown, who kicked two
goals from the field last year, and he
may repeat the performance. The Mid
dies ought not to have q great deal Of
trouble in carrying the ball near enough