FOOT-BALL.

In accordance with the custom of freshman elevents the '87 team went to Andover yesterday afternoon confident of victory, and came away defeated. Their victory over Exeter last Wednesday evidently gave the men too much confidence in themselves, and so they failed on encountering the sharp playing of the Andover team. It is true that Andover men alone are initiated into the mysteries of the brick yard which serves them as a foot-ball field, still ignorance of the state of the grounds cannot in any way explain the loose playing of our team. The freshmen played with little or no order, and all the advantage they gained came from individual plays. Time and again a lack of system alone kept them from scoring and though at times they played hard the steady playing of their opponents beat them back. Before the game the Andover men considered defeat an almost foregone conclusion and not until the close of the three-quarters did many entertain expectations of victory. Andover made in all five touchdowns from which one goal was kicked. Three of the touchdowns were made by Knowlton, the centre rush, whose effective playing did every thing for his side. Toward the end of the last three-quarters Stearns got a very pretty goal from the field, and soon after Wallace ran directly through the '87 team making a touchdown under the very bar itself. Harvard was forced to a safety touchdown in the first three-quarters. The score by points count up 20 to 0 in favor of Andover. This defeat seems to dispirit the freshmen rather than to urge them to renewed effort. It is to be hoped that they will take this rebuke in the right light and go to work determined to wipe out the defeat in a victory over Yale. The team is as good as it was a day or two ago and no one need feel discouraged or withold their support from the eleven just because they have persisted in over-rating its strength. Some time will elapse before the decisive struggle and all the class should turn in and help the captain in every possible way. It is to be hoped that the eleven has now found out the true nature of the work cut out for them this fall, and that they will now set to work to perform it successfully. Cowling, Brooks and Willard did the best playing for Harvard. The contesting teams were as follows :

Andover-Forwards, Odlin, Seeger, Follett, Knowlton (capt.), Manning, Wyman and Hurd ; quarter-back, King ; half-backs, Stearns and Wallace ; back, Alderman.

Harvard-Eorwards, Fiske, Faulkner, Cochrane (capt.), Brooks, Fletcher, Zinkeisen, Higginson ; quarter-back, Willard ; half-backs, Peabody and Burgess ; back, Cowling. Umpire for Andover, Mr. Grant, for Harvard, Fiske, '86 ; Mason, '84, referee.