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Since the Farmers had last met Richmond at the latter team's home field, neither had played much football. The Aggies played Roanoke College as part of the North Carolina State Fair the Friday before last, defeating the Salem boys 22-0. Richmond, on the other hand, played a nail-biter against rival Randolph-Macon, losing 11-12 in a game that was reportedly "one of the prettiest football games ever played in Richmond" and a great exhibition of new, "scientific" football to boot (The Farmer and Mechanic, October 22nd, 1907, p. 8).

Interestingly, as best as I can find, the only reason this game was played on a Monday instead of Saturday the 26th was because A&M's home field was already occupied: Raleigh High School and Durham High School played a scoreless tie game on the new athletic field that afternoon (News and Observer, October 27th, 1907, p. 13).

This was originally planned to be the final home game of the season for the Aggies, and was advertised heavily in Raleigh papers. Reports advertised that the team was still practicing daily against their strong scrub team (News and Observer, October 24th, 1907, p. 6). Other incentivization given to Raleigh locals hoping to see the game was that the new bleachers had been expanded to sit a whole 600 people, and that quarterback Stephens was going to be given "a full hand to run the team," with permission to run his exciting trick plays which he loved making--he'd previously been prohibited from using them by Coach Whitehurst (The Raleigh Evening Times, October 26th, 1907, p. 3; News and Observer, October 27th, 1907, p. 13).

The first of the game's two 25-minute halves kicked off at 4 PM. Unfortunately, not many details of the game were recorded; as News and Observer put it, "Details of the game would be telling a twice-told tale." Unfortunately for Stephens, it seems as if his ingenious trick plays did not get to be implemented, as Virginia's first-year coach Hammond Johnson was present to watch the game.

A complaint by the papers was that the game was cheifly played in the old style of play, utilizing tandem line plunges for the most part rather than passes. There was not much punting despite the fair weather, and even less passing. "Richmond's play gave the chief evidence that the forward pass was in existence, several tries being made, only two of which gained ground." The Farmers tried a few kicks, but failed as the quarterback was crowded before he could cleanly make the kick. The Aggies' only pass attempt reportedly was muffed by the receiver and then recovered in a scrummage by A&M; unfortunately for the Red and White, "The official did not see this by-play... and the ball was brought back, as though it had hit the ground without being touched." After that, "the Tar Heels confined their attention to doing something that they knew how to do: and that was playing old-time football."

The Farmers got one touchdown in the first half and one touchdown in the second half, with the missed goal kick taking place in the second half. It's unclear just how long Thompson took to score the first touchdown; Red and White and Charlotte Daily Observer wrote that the touchdown took 4-1/2 minutes into the game, while News and Observer wrote that the touchdown was made "after barely sixty seconds of play" in the first half. Thompson made the goal kick as well.

The second half started off well for Richmond, with Smith's long run, but afterwards, the game returned to change in favor of the Aggies. Five minutes into the second half, Beebe kicked the ball to Von Glahn, who recovered the kick across the Spiders' goal line for a touchdown. The goal kick failed, however, after the ball hit one of the uprights and bounced outside the goal posts.

Richmond being unable to gain ground was the story of the game. Their only chance at making a touchdown was a miracle in-and-of-itself, after the Aggies drove the ball to Richmond's 4 yard line but fumbled the ball. Smith, the Red and Blue quarterback, recovered the fumble and ran the ball back 72 yards, nearly all the way to A&M's goal. After reaching the Red and White's 20-yard line, Smith "looked around with mistaken sagacity for the blockers, and again, with ill-timed apprehension for those of his enemies who might be in his wake" rather than "emulat[ing] the jackrabbit" and continuing his run downfield. Smith's delay allowed the Aggies to tackle him on their 20-yard line, short of the goal line. This was Richmond's only chance to score.

Though it's not clear when, the Aggies changed out most of their players after it was clear that they "had the game in hand," switching out almost all of the starters for the players listed as subs above. Captain Thompson was changed out at some time before the half, taken out after "he had tackled a Richmond man so hard that the coach had to come out and walk him around again... before he remembered where he had started from, or recalled destination."

A&M's domination throughout the game was complete: Richmond only stopped the Aggies from making a new set of downs once, when the Aggies were on Richmond's 10-yard line. Smith's 72-yard run was the only play of any note made by Richmond, with no papers honoring any of the other Richmond players. For A&M, the stars were Stroud and Stephens, though Saunders, Sadler, and Seifert also reportedly played well (Red and White, Vol. IX No. 3 (November 1907), pp. 130-131; News and Observer, October 29th, 1907, p. 5; Charlotte Daily Observer, October 29th, 1907, p. 10).

Richmond closed out their season on a more solid note; after coming into the game with a 1-3 record, the Virginians went 2-2 for a 3-6 overall record, blowing out Hampden-Sydney 38-0 and William & Mary in Newport News 48-0, but also losing 11-13 to North Carolina and 10-14 to Randolph-Macon.