[legendsport]

Tyrone, PA: November 21, 1931:

"You ever been here before?" Hank Moorehead asked his newest assistant.

Joe Barrell shook his head and said, "Nope. When I was at Noble, we never played these guys, nevermind played up here."

He smirked and added, "There wouldn't be much to this place if someone hadn't planted a university here."

Moorehead chuckled, slapped Joe on the shoulder and replied, "That'd be true for a lot of small towns. This is a railhead for coal coming out of the mines hereabouts, but yes, the town would certainly be not much of a thing without St. Blane's being here."

"We've been playing these boys every year since '26. It's becoming something of a rivalry," said Sam Berry, the other assistant coach. Berry was a more accomplished and experienced coach than Joe and ran the scout team, whose job was to mimic the upcoming opponent. "Everytime I think I get a handle on the Fighting Saints, they change it up on me," he said with a frown.

Moorehead grabbed Berry by the shoulder, "We've got 'em this time, Sammy."

"Sure do hope so, boss," Berry replied. "The boys are as ready as they can be, I'll say that much."

"That's just right, Sam. You and Joe have done a great job this season," Moorehead said. Then he took a deep breath and said, "Now let's get out there and show 'em what Dolphins football is all about."

Moorehead gave a signal to captain Sid Wilson, who gave a whoop and then led a cheering group of Coastal California Dolphin footballers into the tunnel and then the bright Saturday sunshine of St. Blane Stadium, deep in the heart of Central Pennsylvania and a long, long way from the Dolphins' Los Angeles home.

For Joe Barrell the game was a landmark. He'd been a part of some very good teams, including professional championship teams with the Chicago Wildcats. But the season Coastal was having.... he'd never seen the like. The season had begun with a pair of shutouts: 37-0 over Golden Gate University and 47-0 over Lane State. They followed their wins over California and Oregon-based teams with an equally easy 40-7 romp over Spokane State to complete a Pacific Coast state sweep. Then they ran off four straight shutouts: 33-0 over Portland Tech, 41-0 over Northern Cal, 45-0 over Redwood and 51-0 over Custer College. That brought them here, to the middle of Pennsylania with a record of 7-0 and having outscored their opponents to the tune of 294 to 7.

Joe was in charge of the backfield, and had a great one. The fullback, Golden Custer, was a force of nature and a shoo-in for All-American honors. If College Football had an equivalent to the FABL's Whitney award, Custer would be a frontrunner for it.

But St. Blane was the pre-eminent Eastern football program and were even tougher on their home field. They had suffered one loss this season, a surprising 12-10 loss to St. Magnus. They'd immediately bounced back by demolishing Lambert College 85-3, the type of loss that made Joe feel sorry for the overmatched Stags. That had kicked off a hot stretch for the Fighting Saints, who came into the matchup with Coastal Cal coming off back-to-back shutouts of their own against quality teams in Pierpont and Annapolis Maritime. And the Saints had a star back of their own in Dolph Sloan who was also expected to be an All-America selection. What made that worse from Coastal's standpoint was that Sloan was a California native, who'd spurned Coastal to play for the Saints. Moorehead, Berry and Joe had made sure all the Dolphins knew this which meant Sloan could expect to hear about it on the field.

The battle between two of the top teams each featuring one of the best backs in the game lived up to its billing. Custer shone as brightly as could be expected by someone whose moniker was "Golden" - he put up three touchdowns and finished with a game-high 172 yards rushing. Sloan, despite getting some rough business at the bottom of piles all afternoon long, also played very well, scoring twice himself and becoming the first opposing back to hang a century against the Coastal Cal rush defense.

When the gun sounded to end the game, it was Coastal that came out on top by a 38-24 margin in a game that many agreed was one of the best of the '31 season. With three games left in the season, Coastal was 8-0. Joe had already circled December 12 on his personal calendar: on that day the Dolphins would welcome Joe's alma mater Noble Jones to Dolphins Field. But that was a few weeks away... for now Joe could celebrate a big win before the team boarded the train for the long trip back to California.