Clifton High School - Trojan Yearbook (Clifton, AZ)

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 First row: Padilla, Lontoya, Ochoa, Rogge, Patterson, Hunter, Montgomery, Second ror: Caballero, Hernandez, Cabral, Elair, Tellez, Urrea, Third row: '..elch, Shunway, Brutinel, Valdez, Goodspeed, Gardner, Coach Cooper. FOOTBALL Under the coaching of a new football mentor, Coach Carl Cooper, the 1940 season showed an upgrade on its previous football seasons. Scheduled to nine games the indefinable Trojans answered their call by winning three games, two of which were conference games. Bothered by a loss of seven seniors the year before, the Trojans found it difficult to make a good start. With the introduction of a new coach came also a new system of play. The new system called the Notre Dame System —invented by the late Knute Rockne, consisted of a graceful shift in the backfield from a T formation to a box formation. The system carried many tricks, among them one which later helped to defeat Uorenci. It was something altogether new and the system proved to be very valuable. The first tilt of the year, September 21 with Safford, proved rather unsuccessful to the Trojans. They were repulsed by a score of 20-6. Following this defeat came two more unsuccessful tries at vic- tory. The Trojans lost the Globe and Thatcher games 26-0, and 33-18 respectively. The Trojans were soon relieved of the losing streak for the following two weeks they withheld and defeated the Wilcox Cowboys 7-0, and the Pima Wildcats 12-0. Then came the fourth defeat. Shining under a field of confidence the Trojans ran into the gridiron on the night of October 26 and were very disappointedly held back to a 12-6 defeat by the Tombstone Yellowjackets. Irritated by this shameful defeat the Tricky Trojans successfully defeated the Morenci Wildcats in a conference game November 1 by a small score of 6-0. It is to be noted that the last defeat of Uorenci by Clifton was in the 1937 season when the Wildcats were edged by a 12-6 score. The following games were lost to Duncan 53-0 and a non-conference tilt to Korenci 18-0. Though the Trojans won such a low percentage of games they tied for the Eastern Conference Championship of class C schools of 1940. Of all the games played perhaps none was more outstanding than the conference tilt with Korenci on November 1. In this game several 24

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things were to be credited to the victorious Trojans, chiefly the re- markable way they put over a special trick play devised by Coach Cooper for that game. The play worked out like this: Halfback Good- speed, after running a long end run and tackled near the sidelines, faked an injury. As he laid sprawled on the ground the rest of the team lined up on scrimmage line. The Morenci players not knowing what was going on went to look at the injured player. At this moment the ball was centered to Trojan halfback Padilla who was off for a touchdown before the opponents had recovered from their surprise. Among the team were three men who were unable to complete their season in action because of injuries. These were Warren Montgomery, Henry Stute, and Jesse Hernandez. Those who lettered were: Captain: Ray Goodspeed Albert Valdez Robert Brutinel Eddie Padilla Johnny Black Irvan Welch Bud Rogge Edward Montoya Warren Montgomery Julio Mendoza Ardeth Shuraway Mauro Morales Alex Paterson Robert Ochoa Jack Hunter Henry Stute 25