Under a pelting and soaking rain, Tamaqua High lost the biggest game of the year Saturday by a score of 39-0.
The best team won. Coaldale was that team. Both teams played in the water-drenched field. Coaldale High easily adapted itself to the totally unsuitable playing conditions resulting therefrom. Both played football, that is, the kind of football which can be played on a slippery and soggy field. Coaldale got the treat Tamaqua supplied them, which they never would have done on a dry field (and that’s no excuse for their defeat.) But, after all, that is the game.
The beginning was inauspicious. Receiving, Tamaqua fumbled on its own ten yard line. On an end run — out of many — Coaldale scored its first of six touchdowns. It galled but never discouraged the T.H.S. gladiators of the gridiron who struggled with renewed determination and vigor. But it was a losing fight. But never did the Blue and White surrender that spirit of honor which she inherited from the teams which have gone before.
That was vividly demonstrated in the second quarter of the first half when Coaldale failed in four attempts to pierce the fighting line which held them a half-yard from a touchdown.
Tamaqua line charges upon which the coaches have relied to win the game were futile—not because of Coaldale, but because of mud—soft, slippery and slimy mud. Having a lighter backfield and rarely using the line attack, Coaldale was less handicapped by this greatest of handicaps to the football player—mud. Coaldale used the forward pass only once and that failed.
Cheering Helped Visitors.
Not the least in Coaldale’s victory was the cheering. Cheer after cheer rent the ait and stirred the Coaldale youths to nobler efforts. The entire Coaldale school board was present.
The bacon was distributed among the Coaldale backfield as follows, who shared it with their team- and school-mates: Evans, 3 touchdowns; Sneddon, 2 and a safety; Kalen, 1 and a dropkick from touchdown, making a grand total of 39.
Tamaqua was handed the empty platter.
