DARTMOUTH 19, HOLY CROSS 6
Before the largest opening crowd in the history of Memorial Stadium, the Green bounced back from their defeat by Penn and practically ran the heavier and highly favored minions of Holy Cross out of the park. The score was 19-6, but it fails to tell the story of the complete offensive superiority of Coach McLaughry's charges. The latter were so overflowing with sheer animal spirits and committed such a variety of infractions of the regulations that they lost two or three potential touchdowns by penalties. On this lovely fall afternoon, the Green had power to throw away (which they did) and still had enough left to win going away.
Led by Dr. Bill Osmanski, formerly of Holy Cross and late of the Chicago Bears, the Crusaders came roaring into town on the crest of a two-game winning streak (over Georgetown and Syracuse) and threatened to tear the less robust Dartmouths limb from limb. They failed utterly to do this, much to the gratification of the Dartmouth enthusiasts and the distress of the large contingent of supporters from Worcester who almost filled the east stands. Twelve years ago, as some of you remember, this same Osmanski intercepted a Dartmouth pass and ran 70 yards for the only score of the game. Holy Cross practically repeated the play this year to score their only touchdown on the last play of the first half. But this was not enough. Not nearly enough.
The Dartmouth attack really got rolling against the bulky Crusaders. With the quick-opening hand-offs to Fitkin, Carey, and Sullivan tearing off great chunks of yardage and the passing attack brilliantly devastating, the Green flashed its most explosive offensive in many years. The first touchdown was scored in the first few minutes of the first period, when John Clayton, who played a spectacular game at quarterback, tossed a long pass to end Red Rowe, who juggled the ball for a moment on the Holy Cross 30-yard line and went the rest of the way standing up.
The Indians held this slender 6-0 lead until the final four seconds of the second period when quarterback Bob McCraney, inspired by an overpowering desire to score again before the intermission, tossed a pass in the direction of a Dartmouth receiver. A purple shirt, instead of a green one, was in the way and Holy Cross was thereby presented with its only score. From that point on, their vaunted attack from the T formation, modeled after that of the mighty Chicago Bears, failed to produce and they spent the rest of the afternoon in their own territory vainly trying to prevent Dartmouth from scoring. In this venture, incidentally, they received an assist from the middle-aged man with the horn who calls the penalties and who levied some 95 yards against Dartmouth, plus some more yardage which Holy Cross refused when it was to their advantage to do so. The offensive line play of the Green was indeed ragged, with numerous instances of off-side play that were obvious from the stands. Some of the other adverse decisions, however, were somewhat more mystifying to the clients. But it all came out in the wash.
The second Dartmouth touchdown came early in the third period when Clayton tossed a pass to Captain Dale Armstrong (who played a superb game both offensively and defensively all afternoon) almost on the goal line. Herb Carey plunged over for the score on the next play. The final Green tally came in the last period, following a spectacular interception by Jim Melville of an abortive Holy Cross forward pass. Sullivan, Fitkin, Carey, and Clayton ripped off huge morsels of yardage, culminated by a pass to end Dave Beeman which almost got over. John Clayton negotiated a quarterback sneak for the score and Herb Carey converted for the only extra point of the game. As the game ended, Dartmouth was knocking at the door again, following a wild series of interceptions, fumbles, and assorted heroics. On the final play, Bill Spoor snared a Clayton pass for a first down on the enemy 10-yard line. The way things were going, we would have scored on the next play, but there was so little time.
This was a wide-open, offensive battle from start to finish, with Dartmouth running up 17 first clowns, several of them gained two and three times over because of penalties. Holy Cross made 12 first downs herself, most of them in the early part of the game on running plays. Total yardage on the ground for Dartmouth was 232 yards, as against 152 for the Crusaders. In the best display of throwing the ball on the part of a Dartmouth team seen for some time, the Green completed 7 out of 20 passes for a total distance of 178 yards through the air. The combined air and land offensive efforts of Coach McLaughry's spirited charges was thus 410 yards, enough to win two or three ordinary games. As noted above, Dartmouth was charged with 95 yards for real and alleged infractions of the regulations (it seemed like 200 yards at the time), whereas the invaders lost a modest 5 yards in the same fashion. But these were only minor annoyances to a Dartmouth team that had speed, power, and deception to burn. We hope the boys can keep it up.
BOB TYLER (42) ELUDES A PENN LINEMAN in the final quarter of the Quaker-Indian struggle before 60,000 at Franklin Field. Running interference is Carll Tracy (43). Aided by breaks, Penn won, 26-13.
A THIRTY-YARD GAIN FOR THE GREEN resulted from this forward pass play, Clayton to Spoor (89), in Holy Cross game. With the sophomore quarterback throwing, Dartmouth is dangerous in the air this fall.
FULLBACK HERB CAREY (33) attempts to escape from three Penn tacklers deep in Dartmouth territory during the second quarter. Sponaugle (80) and Rossell (51) are two of ihe Quaker linemen shown.
