Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 117, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1909 — BATTLE GROUND TOO MUCH FOR RENSSELAER SATURDAY. [ARTICLE]

BATTLE GROUND TOO MUCH FOR RENSSELAER SATURDAY.

Visitors Have a Fine Team and Merited Thelrv Yictory Over the Plucky High School Boys. Battle Ground high school defeated Rensselaer high school last £ at Riverside Athletic Park by the score of 17 to 5, and had it n '/oen for the desperate and plucky of the badly outclassed and seriously crippled defenders of the black and white, the score against them might have been much worse, for Battle Ground was in the very pink of condition, was considerably heavier, some older and in better training, presenting as fine an article of defensive running as was ever seen on the local gridiron by a high school team. Most of the scoring was dbne in the first few minutes of play,-Bat-tle Ground making two touchdowns and kicking two goals and Rensselaer making one touchdown on a fluke that might have been avoided had one of the Battle Ground understood what to do. Rensselaer had punted across the goal line and a Battle Ground player secured the ball and instead of touching it down for a touchback, which would have put the ball in play on the 25 yard line, he started' to run with it and fumbled the ball when tackled, and Rensselaer got the ball and a touchdown. Rensselaer was much weakened. Kirk was gamely playing with a broken finger, the bones of which were piercing through the muscles and with an eye swollen almost shut, while Casey and Colvert were playing against boys almost twice their size and receiving a hard grilling. Parks, Haas, Hemphill, Beam and, in fact, all the boys played ap especially gritty game against big odds, and the fact that they held their opponents to the final seore of 17 to 5 speaks well for their determined spirit. Battle Ground evidently has one of the best high school teams in the state this year, and their sprightly little quarterback, Tommy Fisher, is one of the best all around football players for his inches that ever played here, Cassidy, at half back, was also a star.