Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1915-12-04
Portland Sport Writer
Has Poor Opinion Of
Eastern Football Sample
(R. A. orOnin, in Portland Journal }

(R. A. Cronin, in Portland Journal.)
There will be no quibbling over the
respective merits of the Syracuse uni
versity and the Oregon Agricultural
football teams, but there will be many
arguments over the superiority of far
eastern or far-western football.
Syracuse beat the Aggies on Multi
nomah field yesterday by score of 20
to 9 before some 5000 football fans
from all parts of the state.
If Syracuse is of the best sample of
eastern football, the brand they play
back there must not be much. There
will be little doubt in the minds of
those VINO have seen ,,pshington State
and University of Washington play
that either could have beaten Coach
Buck" O'Niell's eleven with its
beefy line. The University of Oregon
team in the form it showed in the
last weeks of the season could doubt
less have beaten the easterners. There
are those who would b9 willing to bet
heavily on it.
Fake Punt on Fourth Down.
Any football team that will play a
fake punt on the fourth down, within
the shadow of its own goal posts and
with 50 yards to go,i must have a
monkey wrench in it's think tank. And
to cap the climax, the easterners got
away with It'll
And, too, if Babe White, with all of
his 273 pounds and mis- six feet and a
half of weight, is an All-American
guard, what is the blonde German who
played opposite him and who opened
enough holes for the kaiser's army.
And, going still further, what would
Johnny Beckett of Oregon do against .
line like Syracuses If White is an
All-American guard, Beckett is the
greatest tackle that ever played the
game.
Syracuse is the best basketball
team that has ever played out this
way. The O'Neill team showed the
northwestern coaches some Of the most
puzzling and best concealed forward
passes that have been witnessed in this
section. They were almost unsolvable,
and it was not until late in the game
that the Aggies began to wake up to
a defense for them. When they did,
Abraham and Allen smeared whole
peck of them.
Rafter Star Ground Gamer.
Little Rafter, the squirmiest young
ster as we'll as the fastest that has
crunched the sawdust under his feet
this season, was the star ground gamer
Of the day. Whenevershe wasn't good
for from 3. to 25 yards it was time for
the Syracuse to punt. But there is a
grave question whether the Syracuse
backfield could have withstood the de-
fensive play of pair Of tackles like
Beckett of Oregon and Applequist Of
Washington state.
When Rafter took the ball, it was
mostly from a perpendicular backfield
alignment to the Syracuse forwards.
One of the halfbacks turned out the
opposing end, the other two ran to-
gether like team with Rafter hiding
behind them, until they were abreast of
the line, when both took care of the
Aggies' secondary defense, opening
wide to let the little sprinter through.
1t strikes one that charging forward
line, say like the University of Ore
gon, would have tripped this play up
and made it almost nil.
o. A. G. Forward Held Well.
The 0. A. c. forwards held well
enough against their heavier Syracuse
opponents and a great amount of yard
age was not made by the visitors on
straight plunges, Halfback Wilkinson
did not make any gains to speak OF
off Laythe IS tackle, but behind
Schlatchter he certainly tore through
the other side of the Aggies' line.
The prettiest fight the Aggies put
up was on the third touchdown. The
visitors put the ball on the o. A. G
one-yard line and the Stewart clar
gathered all of its strength for a fina
defense. 1t was the greatest display
of fight the Aggies showed during the
the game. 1t took the heavy Syracuse
team four solid plunges, and then they
got the ball over by only inches.