Evening star., 1923-12-02


II When the Sun Was Low" would
tie Corsican the strength and courage
e continent.
| lays It's defeat From the beginning
until the end of that struggle Goett-
ge stood out as the paramount fac
tor. Without him the Marines would
have been leaderless: without him
they would have lacked tho essential
physical prowesS which finally wore
down opposition and sent the Army
mule sadly on his homeward way.
That is. if he was able to find homo
after those Marines had taken pos
session of him. Probably the ARM
already has prepared to catalogue
that animal as expended material"
Any story of the game must be
story of the exploits of Goettge.
Right at the beginning by main ply
sical power he drove the ball from
dangerous territory almost to the
middle of the field only to have a
his efforts useless. Then q few min
utes later. with the ball on the one
yard line, il was Giocttge who dag
nosed the Army play before it fairl,
got started, and smashed the man
carrying the ball before the line OF
scrimmage was reached.
But passing over the burdens
Goettge bore during the greater part
Of the struggle we come to the final
moments. When that fatal play Of
the Army in the closing minutes re-
suited in an intercepted forward pass
the real test of the born leader came
It was an inspiration to watch
Goettge in that last drive toward the
goal line. Thirty y-fVe thousand or
more human beings felt that inspira
IA a n haa
borne the brunt OF things would find
il within himself to be really grea
Hopes were realized. and when the
last lunge drove over the chalk line.
which meant victory, the multitUd.
voiced its approval OF a brilliant Ell
fort. Well and nobly done.
Ancient Tradition Questioned.
For nearly a century and half ths
traditions Of the Marine Corps have
stood for what is good. One of those
traditions has been and Is that the
Marine Corps makes the man, but
after watching for two hours Goettge
! and other men of his type, one comes
man makes the Marine Corps.
OF any foot ball game much may b5
written. OF the mistakes of any game
| much may be told. But just what ar
mistakes and what are not mistake
is difficult TO tell. \ second guess
always is easy in the minds of most
people. but the second guess might
not have been the right thing had ii
been put 10 all the tests of the first
In short, the questionable things in
fSot ball game may be just as much
the right things as something else.
For instance, every expert would
call the forward pass tried by the
Army which was intercepted near the
end of the game a IA tai blunder. Bur
If that forward pass had been caught
by q fast back and carried we'll down
the field TO n scoring position il would
have been an heroic play. If pun
had been made-the second guess
the ball might have been run back L.
the point it WAS kicked from.
There is no telling what might hav,
happened. In fact, any play the crit;c
might desire to substitute for OF,
that failed might easily turn on,
worse than the one held to be mis-
take.
Both Teams Err in Tactics
Some things. though, in general
might well have been better done ~
both teams. Marines, APPARENT
using the Princeton cutback play. in
the second quarter gained three con
Secutive first downs and then prompt
ly forgot they had such play
worked themselves into an unfavor-
able position near the side lines ana
failed to hold the ball and advance
because they tried forward passes
which were not nearly so sound as
the play they had been using. TIL.
same thing was true of their short
end run from kick formation. All
through the game that play gained
ground whenever it was used. ana
when, il the last moments of the
game, it was used almost exclusively
it produced the touchdown that car
ried a triumph to Quantico.
Then, again, il seems that the Arm
might have employed the kicking
game more advantageously in tn.
early part of the game. Not only
such exchanges, but the strength a.
, the men would have been conserved
for the final and really grueline
stages.
down under punts and touched :;
kicked ball within yard or two OF
the goal line, when had the safety
men shouidered out those ends tn"
ball would have rolled across for
touchbacks.
In the first quarter. when the
Army had the ball a yard and half
from the Marine goal line, 1t should
never have waited until fourth down
] to forward pass. With the Marin,
| holding hard, the Army backs took
three desperate plunges into them
without results. on the fourth down
| the Marine backs moved wide to stor
! the anticipated pass, and they dit
| just that, forcing the throw to br
made so far that no player could
have reached ii.
| Open Defense Proves Costly.
| The Marines appeared to open ny
| their defense too much when down
| in Army's territory with Army ia
possession of the ball. In the second
! quarter that cost considera BILE dis
| tance, as two plunges through center
gained 10 yards and Dodd broke
/ through the rather loose defense
and ran to the middle of the field.
| However. the Army did not have the
stuff to pursue the advantage fur
ther.
| But a foot ball game is a foot bail
game, and in that as in all things in
which the human element is a factor
: there is proneness to make errors. \
summing up of yesterdays game con-
yinces that the Marines won because
they possessed Goettge and that
Army lost because they did not have
a man of Goettge's ability. 1t was
Goettge who provided much of his
teams defense. who gave it the lead
ership any viuning foot ball team
must have. 4 who in the last few
minutes pr that he had the net
essary res t'f physical strength
to beat baci ..cakening team. This
| is not inteLL, Il in the least to dc
tract from the efforts OF Rykeman
an able assistant in ground gaininc.
nor of the other men who maintaine d
all the high standards of n century :