FOOTBALL AT FENWAY
Alert hard tackling B.C. routs Duke, 19-0
October 12, 1928 ...
The Eagles displayed punching, driving, and hustling football to produce a thrilling victory over a Duke team that had crushed them the year before. It was not a one-sided victory as the Eagles had to work to get everything they earned. They scored three
touchdowns, one on a solid punching march down half the field. The second was on a pass from Al Weston to Pat Creeden, and last on a pass interception by Tom Smith. Neither was their work in defending their goal an easy one. Two marches of more than 40 yards brought the
boys from North Carolina close to the goal, but B.C. kept them from completing the drives and scoring. The first drive came in the first period when Duke had B.C. on its heels and worked the ball downfield. The stand was sharp as Duke could not penetrate the Eagle line
on two runs and failed to connect on two pass attempts. In the third period the southerners drove again only to have their journey ended by a fumble. The stats will show that Duke out gained the Eagles, but the tackling B.C. defense was the difference.
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TOM SMITH |
During the first period the two teams punted back and forth until Duke put together their first long drive. At the end of the first period John Marr intercepted a pass for B.C. at midfield. A five yard gain was followed by a drive of 21 yards by Al
Weston and a 16-yd waltz by Pat Creeden. Weston then took the ball down to the 20-yd line for the Eagles third consecutive first down. Creeden took the next handoff and ran through the line untouched, with Tom Smith taking out the only player in the secondary with a chance of
saving a score, for an easy touchdown. In the third period, Duke started their second good drive in an attempt to score, with Thorn intercepting a pass at their own 27-yard line. In eight plays, they covered 50 yards only to see it end with a fumble. It was all Eagles
after that. At the start of the fourth period Creeden intercepted a pass on his own 20-yard line and cut loose with an open field. He made it down the sideline with only one blocker who missed the defender and Creeden was pushed out of bounds at the Duke 12-yd line. Four
downs produced nothing and B.C. was forced to give up the ball. But Duke could not move and B.C. took a punt on the Duke 40-yd line to start. There Weston hit Creeden with a 15 yard pass on the right that netted an untouched scoring run. Toward the end of the game Tom
Smith picked off a Duke pass at his own 32-yard line. The Duke players were all on his right so he took off to the left, with a clear shot all the way to the goal line for an easy touchdown that virtually ended the game.
