Sanford High School - Distaff Yearbook (Sanford, ME)

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WINE IDNSMWI? After absorbing for the winning extra point. a slight loss, the Redskins then set Howe free to run 52 yards touchdown which Blake followed up with a dropkick for the Uk wk 'Il lk Sanford took its first real beating of the year, as a heavy Westbrook eleven raised Cain in general and scored in all periods except the first to slap down the Redskins with no trouble at all with a wide 27 to 6 margin. Perhaps it was because of their letdown the previous Saturday at Somersworth, but whatever it was, the Red and VVhite squad definitely was not showing its stuff to the Paper City fans as play after play mishred, and the Sanfurds looked just plain helpless on the offense, Defensivcly they looked slightly better, but as the NVestbrook team, sparked by Gouzie, began to rack up the touchdowns, that, too, began to crumble. XVestbrook. after being held in the first quarter. started the scoring in the second canto with Gonzie doing most of the work, including place kicking thc point after touchdown. History repeated soon after as the Paper City team tallied seven more points to give them a 14'0 lead. The second half was the same old story as Sanford couldn't do a thing with the ball, and iVestbrook once more drove into the promised land with Gouzie kicking the point after. Then, in the fourth chapter, just to put things really on ice, they again scored, A placekick attempt failed. Finally. in the dying minutes of the game, Sanford, trailing 21 to 0, came to life. After driving across midfield. Simpson tossed a beautiful pass on the dead run to Savage who caught it just short of the goal line. Sweeney went over on the next play, at ir if at Biddeford High School's Tiger eleven continued on its merry unbeaten way at Goodall Park in the annual Armistice Day battle between Sanford and Biddies by defeating the Redskins 7 to 0 in the tightest battle seen here in a long, long time. Despite a driving rain which fell during most of the game, a crowd of more than 5,000 screaming fans watched the two teams light it out-Biddeford striving to continue its record of not having been defeated or tied during the 1946 season, Sanford doing its darndest to pull the schoolboy upset of the year by beating the Tigers or at least tying them. it + if -r Biddeford went into the scrap with the assurance of just about everybody that they would be the winner by at least three and probably six touchdowns. Such, however. was not to be. Despite the fact that they maintained control of the ball for most of the first half, a strong Sanford line forced them to give the ball up time after time. The Redskins just coulrln't get going at all, and it was the beautiful punting of Bob Savage that pulled Sanford out of more than one hole. Unfortunately. Lady Luck turned against the Redskins and handed the Orange and Black just the break that it needed to break the stalemate. With less than a minute left to play, a Biddeford pass to the SHS fifteen was batted into the air by Charlie Howe bitt the Biddeford right end caught the ball before it hit the ground, giving Biddeford a First down on the Sanford 15. Then with a fourth down coming up and with only 20 seconds left to play, an enemy pass from Car- tier to Cordeau connected for the only score of the game. Throumoulos rushed the extra point. There was time only for the kickoff, and the half ended. Sanford came back in the second half to completely nutplay their opponents, starting right off with three hrst downs put together by Ray Simpson, Savage. and Howe, and capped by a 21 yard pass from Bob Blake to Everett Brown on the Tiger nine. where the attack was stopped cold. Later attacks carried to the Biddeford 43 and still deeper to the 28. A heavy Biddeford line squelched both PAGE 57

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EMG EUSUAEI? PAGE 50 football team for the first time since Iozo, anyway, and perhaps longer. since no records ,are available hefore that time. The game was a thriller from start to fmish and the fans were on their feet ninety percent of the time to get a hetter view of the hard-fought battle between the two traditional rivals. Time and again throughout the game. Sanford drove deep into enemy territory, only to he forced to give tip the hall on downs, and almost as many times. the 'l'hornton eleven seemed on the verge of plowing through the Redskin line to- ward victory. Late in the fourth quarter, Thornton drove relentlessly dotvnficld toward the Sanford goal by means of line plunge after plunge. Things looked had for Sanford as they clicked off a first down on our own 35. Then it hap- pened! A Thornton back faded to throw a passg it was a short one, over the center of the line intended for another one of Maroon and Gold. Out of nowhere. Larry Sweeney intercepted the pass inside his own thirty yard line :md raced down the far side of the field, past the fifty, the forty. the thirty. the twenty, the ten, the five, and then into the end zone for thc Sanford tally, where he was mobbed hy his happy team mates. The try for the extra point failed, and the score stood Sanford 6, Thornton o. Then the TA attack really opened up. VVith what seemed like only seconds left to play, Thornton racked up four first downs in a row by the use of a series of line plunging plays which tore gaping holes in the Sanford line. The stands were alive. people stood wondering if the time was ever going to run ont on the TA eleven's steady drive. just when it seemed that the Sanford line would have to give way to the Thornton advance. time ran out with the hall resting comfortably on the Sanford three yard line. One more play and the game would probably have ended as it did two years ago when TA scored in the last play of the game and kicked the point to win. Though Sweeney's long run was the highlight of the game, Blake turned in several, beautiful long runs and almost broke away twice, only to be hauled down from behind. ln his first year as SHS football coach, Danny Alvino has shaped up the first team to turn back Thornton in seventeen years. one In a roughly played game at Somersworth, N. H., Sanforcl's Redskins made it three out of four during the current season by turning hack the Granite Staters, I3 to 6, by virtue of Charlie Howe's 52 yard touchdown run three plays into the third quarter. ln the fray. which was somewhat marred by sloppy ofiiciating and even slop- pier police work on the sidelines, Sanford opened the scoring by driving across the Somersworth goal line after the opening kickoff. Larry Sweeney sparked the offensive after H0we's I9 yard runback of the kickoff, as he carried the ball for the first four plays in a row, turning in gains of I2. 6, 4. and 6 yards con- secutively which carried the ball to the Somersworth 35 yard line. Here, Carami' halis tossed an aerial to Brown. who made a neat fingertip clutch of the ball on the 16. Sweeney, Simpson, and Caramihalis put together a first down on the enemy three, and then, after Simpson was tossed for a 5 yard loss, Blake passed to Savage in the end zone for the score. Somersworth tied it up in the second quarter when Cote, left halfback for the enemy, took a short pass on the Sanford 47 and shook off tackler after tackler to score, standing up. Simpson knocked down a pass for the extra point, leaving the score deadlocked at 6 all. - In the second half, Lizotte fell on the ball after the Sanford kickoff bounced off a Somersworth man, giving the Redskins possession on the Hilltoppers' 49.

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El'-UE Ib SEM? PAGE 55 drives. As the seconds ticked away, hope-once more came to the Sanford fans as Bill Walker broke through to block a lliddie punt which rolled back to nine. A mad scramble for the pigskiu ensued, but it was Biddeford that recovered as the game ended. The entire Sanford line turned in a wonderful juh of stopping the invaders. and in the hacktield, Howe and Simpson shone both on the attack and in the defense. while Savage's pnnting was superb, lil!! At the end of its tirst gridiron season under the leadership of Coach Alvino, Sanford High has proved itself a football power which is not to he taken too lightly by the larger schools in the states of both Maine and New Hampshire. XVith a 1946 record of four wins and four defeats despite their handicap of being a little bit too light to he at the top of the football heap. the Redskins have turned in a successful season after all factors are taken into consideration. Only one of Sauford's defeats can he considered degrading: that victory hy NVestbrook, 27-6. In their other defeats, Lady Luck was quite a factor in the enemy's favor, to be trampled by font' touchdowns. At St. Louis, the Redskins were expected The Saints did well to come out on top by a t4-7 count. When Sanford met Biddeford in their traditional .Xrnfstice Day boy team in the state. managed to get their clash, the lliddies. strongest school- only score on a break with just 20 seconds to play in the tirst half. Finally, at Rochester, an extremely heavy for the game's only score. .Xlso in Spaulding eleven powered its way 65 yards Sauford's favor is the fact that, while the defeats and losses were equal, San- ford outseored its opposition. Of all the games. perhaps the most thrilling was the night game with Thornton Academy, when Larry Sweeney intercepted a T. A. pass and galloped 68 yards for the only score of the fray, thereby giving Sanford its first victory over Thorn- ton since i929 Qwliich is as far back as the records goj or earlier.