New-York tribune., 1922-11-26
Aerial Tactics Feature Hard
Fought and Spectacular
Battle; West Pointers
Turn Tide i'm Last Period
Came Ends i'm Darkness
Smythe's 5O-Yd. Sprint Into
Middle Territory Gives
Soldiers Winning Score
By w. B. Hanna

football eleven blazed a trail to two
touohdowns this afternoon in the an
nual game with the Navy and won by
score of II to ii in as gripping a
game as has been played in moons
and moons.
The Navy's three-year-long grip on
the Army-Navy championship was
torn away with a victory brilliantly
and splendidly won. But, be it said on
behalf of the seagoing losers, they
waged battle as brilliant almost as did
the winners and within three points
of being as successful.
In the last five minutes of the final
period dim, vaguely outlined figures
carried on the struggle to the bitter
finish, for by that time dusk for some
time had been forerunner of night,
and the blue and gold of the Navy and
the black and gray of the Army were
being absorbed into the blend of night.
The game began at 2:30 and finished
at 8 o'clock, but into those two hours
and half, save for the rest period, was
crammed a game of surge and sweep
and aerial boldness and fireworks such
as no other game this year has at
tanned. In quality of play, bold and
we'll executed tactics and changes in
fortune and outlook of almost bewild-
erlng frequency every other contest of
the season was surpassed by this one.
Both Use Aerial Attack
1t was game in a thousand, clearly
limned out on the gridiron background.
and the aerial game was king. If you
were to pick out features you would
choose the forward passing. 1t was the
able execution of this play, resortcd to
often, and on the Navy side with no
rendered lead, no matter which side
held it, far from a guarantee OF vic
tory.
Territory meant nothing, by which is
meant that long distance to the goal
line, instead Of being a hardship and o
bugaboo, was merely an inspiration.
Forward passing, long runs and the
running game bore by no means an in
significant part in the whirl and swirl
of the game. In fact, two well schooled
hard playing and resourcefuI elevens
often and quickly devised the means to
shoot from midtield or beyond to the
lo-yard zone in less time than 1t takes
| to tell it,
Seldom is a game played with less
hesitation in choosing plays and with
such confidence on each side. There
was scoring in every period but the
| ilrst, in which the Navy had the better
of it, and In which both sides were
| close to touchdown. The NAVY in the
second period crossed the Army's goal
! iine; me Army in that period made a
] heid goal by placement from the AZ
| yard line, noble lift. The Army made
the Navy retaliated with one in the
fourth period.
! Then, with, the scoring ID to 10
| against them, the Army battlers. watch
ful as hawks, as confident as ever of
/ victory, rallied to the support Of
Smythe, the most conspicuous figure on
the tield and its most vivid performer.
and flung mobile wall around him
when he caught punt in his own ter
rltory and ran it fifty yards to within
close scoring distance.
smythe's Run Stellar Event
That run told the tale. Smythe first
pointed to his left and almost impinged
on the SIDE line. He wormed his wav
through u pack of Navy men, cleared
them ana sped to his right. He crossed
the field on the bias and outpaced sew
eral pursuers there. His mates took
| out few, and the one lone NAVY war
rior who stuck like leech--it looked
] like Conroy in the dim light--fopped
the flying Smythe eleven yards from
I home.
One moment a Navy victory had
beckoned, the next moment defeat
stared the midshipmen in the face:
rhat was Just typical of the game. The
J long run did eventuate in touch down
| and victory, but there was hard and
| episode battling before it became a
| fact accomplished.
The Army buckled into it eagerly
and made no headway against the
! Navy's line, which was on its toes to
man. Then an offside penalty set the
soldiers back. They next lost on a
forward pass. The Navy sifted through
and threw the passer. But there was
still some ammunition in the arsenal.
Smythe, the versatile and reliable,
threw forward pass to. White, his
nimble aid. That planted the bali
| back on the Navy's 6-yard line.
The Navy line was assaulted again.
/ The Army piled into it wedge-like and
pellmell and came tumbling back, for
the moment disintegrated by the vio-
lence of the Navy defense. Tleen came
| the diagonal pass, of which the Army
! was so fond, pass, which when it
/ worked, and it did often, found two
! men slanting off from the wings, one
{ of them acting as decoy.
/ There was guile in the working of
this forward pass. Wood took the ball
| from center, naoe bluff to scoot back
with it, to pass it, handed it to Smythe,
and the latter elusive and artful gen
tleman sent it on short oblique to
| Dodd out at the left Dodd caught it
/! five yards from the goal line. and. with
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