The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1922-10-17
Locals Taken Into Camp Sat-
urday To The Tune Of
14To 6
MT. VERNON SCORES
In THIRD PERIOD
Banners Sport Writer Jour.
neys To MiIlersburg To
See The Game
lBy Fred Hayesl

Buried III the scenic hills Of Holmes
county, a mile from the town Of Mil
lersburg, in a country rather extern
sively inhabited by those strange
bearded people known as Omish, lies
gridiron. 1t was amid these unus-
ual surroundings Saturday afternoon
that the grid battle involving the
high school elevens of Mt. Vernon
and Millersburg was fought.
As far as the score is concerned,
ii proved to be a typical Mt Vernon
Millersburg skirmish For years the
football forces OF these two scholas.
tic institutions have met annually up
on the gridiron to settle the issue as
to which were most formidable wear.
ers OF the moleskin. And in the ma
jority OF these annual clashes, in re-
cent years at least, margin Of one
touchdown has given one or the other
the right to claim superiority. On Sat
urday, history repated itself, for at
the conclusion Of the play only diff
fernce of one touchdown separated
the rival teams. Last season Mt. Yer
non emerged triumphant, but this
time the law of averages, fate or
something, destined that Millersburg
should be returned victorious, and by
q IA to 6 count.
Some Striking Contrasts
1t was peculiar contest. In the
first half, Millersburg easily predomi-
mated the play, two touchdOwns re-
sulting from her efforts. Then came
the second half and the opportunity
for the noisy group of orange and
black supporters to enthuse in ear
nest, for In the final half the situa-
tion was completely. reversed. Mt.
Vernon cleanly outplayed her oppo-
nent but unfortunately the home
crew was unable to capitalize as heav-
fly on her ground gaining efforts as
did Millersburg in the opening half.
It was in the second half that the one
Mt. Vernon marker was registered
1t was an encounter where straight
football was pitted against open play.
Outside of an occasional wide
spread wing formation that proved
somewhat difficult for the local de-
fense to combat, Millersburg relied
almost wholly upon straight line
plunging for her advances.
For Mt. Vernon, forward passing
proved the best ground coverer. Runs
around the Millersburg fianks were
next in line in the matter of effective
ness.
Napoleon Was Right
The combat went far to demon
strate that the old Napoleon axiom,
"The best defense is strong Of
fense," applies as much to the strug'
giles of the football field as to engage
ments on the battlefield.
Little was known of the strength of
the Millersburg defense until the sec.
ond half, for the reason that in the
first two quarters the green and white
eleven drove the home defenders deep
into the confines of their own terri
tory repeatedly; the orange and black
athletes were always fighting with
their backs to the WALL so to speak.
Whenever Millersburg did surrender
possession of the pigskin to Mt. Yer
non in the initial half, the Mounts al
ways were SO dangerously near the
goal they were defending that it
seemed the wise and tactical thing to
dc was to Immediately punt the oval
out, which they usually did. AS a
consequence, Millersburg was on the
offense practically the entire first
half. They needed no defense.
Line colIapses
BY necessarily hammering the
home teams line, the Millersburg
contingent romped from Mt. Vernon's
26-yard line, the point where they had
returned kick from Arnold, straight
to Mt. Vernon's goal line for touch
down, this after ten minutes of play.
Late in the succeeding period. the
Millersburg offense, by employing the
same battering tactics as had led to
It's first touchdown, launched another
drive that rushed the ball 40 yards
and resulted In TIE second touch
down.
Strangely, not real long or spec
tacular advance figured in either of
the marches that accounted for the
Millersburg touchdowns. Invariably
1t took the green and white team
three or four downs to make. the 10