HANOVER, N. H.--Jim Burke, hardhitting right halfback, is lost to the unbeaten Dartmouth football team for the remainder of the season due to a shoulder separation, it was learned yesterday.
It was the second successive year the junior ball carrier received the separation in the right shoulder playing the same team, Harvard.
Dartmouth's undefeated football powerhouse struck with impressive power in the first half of Saturday's game with the Crimson and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon, quite content with a 26-0 victory.
It was the first time the varsity had been shut out since the Princeton game in 1953, and the margin could have been greater if Dartmouth coach Bob Blackman had left his first string in for most of the game. In the second half, Blackman reached down to the bottom of the bench to give every man a chance to play.
Dartmouth, which has yielded only 10 points in five contests this year, completely dominated the game, outrushing the varsity 313 yards to 109 yards. Had the first eleven played more, both the margin of victory and the rushing supremacy might have been considerably greater.
Using a halfback option play with devastating effect, the Green ripped at will through the Crimson defenses in the first half. Two touchdown plays, covering 26 and 14 yards respectively came on the option. This play is a neat variation on the standard quarterback option.
In the Dartmouth play, the quarterback gives the ball to one of his halfbacks, who drives into the line. If he sees yardage ahead he keeps the ball, but if he finds opposition, he laterals the ball back to the quarterback who is sweeping the end. With the opposition's defense pulled in to cover the halfback, the quarterback usually has a lot of running room ahead of him.
The Crimson expected the Big Green to rely heavily on the passing combination of Dave Bradley to Dave Moss, but Dartmouth threw only four passes, completing three for 90 yards. Harvard completed eight out of 20 for only 70 yards.
On the one Dartmouth score which came on a pass, Moss did not figure in the play. Fullback Dave Pratt, who normally fills the role of blocking back in Dart- mouth's "V" formation, was the man who did the pass-catching. Bradley faded back, and as the Harvard defenders fanned out to the left and right to cover the ends, Pratt moved through the line down the middle to the Crimson 15-yard mark, where he gathered in Bradley's pass and then raced the remaining 15 yards to the end zone.
The final Dartmouth touchdown came on a 54-yard run by halfback Don Klages, who was the leading ground-gainer for the Green, totalling 109 yards on 12 carries. The most damage, however, was done by the first-string backfield of Bradley, Pratt, Jim Burke and John Crouthamel. These four carried a total of 18 times for a net gain of 165 yards or an average of 9.2 yards per carry.
Burke and Crouthamel, the two halfbacks, made the majority of carries, and it is unlikely that the Crimson will again face as devastating a pair of runners this season. The first two plays of the game set the tone for the entire first half, with Burke running for six yards through right guard and then Crouthamel going for five more in the same spot.
Dartmouth's line opened holes for the backs, and the backs, running off quick openers, found them every time. Indeed, the Indians' forward unit, led by Captain Joe Palermo, was perhaps the decisive factor in the game, as only the Crimson's 220 pound tackles, Pete Briggs and Bob Shaunessy, could measure up to, and often surpass, Dartmouth's caliber of play.
Harvard was also hurt by injuries to its three key backs, quarterback Dick McLaughlin and halfbacks Chet Boulris and Walt Stahura. McLaughlin and Boulris had to leave the game permanently, but Stahura returned after a five-minute rest in the first quarter and continued playing until late in the final period.
When McLaughlin left the contest in the second period, Stahura switched to quarterback for the remainder of his playing time. The seriousness of the injuries is not yet certain, although Boulris will be out of action at least two or three days and McLaughlin perhaps longer.
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