Line and Passing Defensive Improve As Team Comes Into Its Own Again

Strengthened by a passing and line defense which refused to let its opponents score, the makeshift Crimson team came back into the running last Saturday, and proved that with similar improvement and a stronger starting lineup it would be able to do even better against Yale next week.

Twice backed up to within four yards of their own goal line, the Harvard eleven showed a stubborn resistance which was so completely shattered last week, and thereby indicated that, in spite of several second and third string substitutions, it still had at its command the power to withstand attack when not rattled. As conspicuous as this new line defense was, a forward-pass defense, which has not been seen in the Stadium this year, rendered the Holy Cross passes incomplete 18 times, and five times prevented the Crusaders from scoring.

Proof that Harvard had discovered a new defense even in the form of a scoreless tie would have been satisfactory, but early in the last quarter Wells decided to try the Crimson's own passing possibilities, and with three passes, interspersed with running attacks, drove his team for the first time in three weeks deep down into enemy territory.

Substitutes Star

Perhaps most surprising of all aspects of this Harvard revival was the work done by the substitutes. Most notable in the backfield was Waters, who, assisted ably by Barret's three and four-yard line plunges, caught a ten-yard pass, and a minute later easily drove the ball over on the last down. Rushed often by a Holy Cross line which seeped in uncomfortably fast and slowed up by poor passes from center, Waters got off risky kicks from the extremity of the end zone, and several times Barely before they were blocked.

The line, too, had taken on a new lease of life. At both ends, Hageman and Nazro played an alert game which came to a climax in the two passes they received from Wells at the beginning of the last quarter on the march to the goal-line.

If, then, the first-string backs can improve this coming week in proportion to the improvement shown last week by the team as a whole, and a well-ordered and sufficiently keen enough eleven is gleaned from the material that is left by a strenuous season. Harvard may face Yale next Saturday on the upgrade.

At the tackle positions, Hardy played a steadily good game, often crashing through when the play was not on his side and tackling the Holy Cross back from behind before he had a chance to cross the line of scrimmage, while Bancroft as well as his splendid tackling work, distinguished himself by intercepting a pass on the five-yard line in the second period.