Saint Michaels College - Hilltop Yearbook (Colchester, VT)

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Frosh Football ITH Freshman Football rapidly becoming a favorite among students at the hilltop and their local followers, the St. Michaelis Squires, under the tutelage of Coach Barry Branon, com- pleted a highly satisfactory season with three wins, one tie and one loss. Once again it was the yearlings of Middlebury College who upset the applecart, trimming the Purple and Gold, 20- 13. The deadlock against Williams accounted for the only other stain on the Frosh record, they walked over Clarkson, Vermont and Norwich. Coach Branon's charges, sporting an aggressive line and a smoothly functioning backfield, dis- played a fine array of talent during their five- game schedule. A large number of candidates an- swered the first call for players but when the date for the season opener rolled around Coach Branon had cut his squad to thirty men. Opening against Clarkson at Malone, N. Y., on October 10, the Squires outscored the Tech Frosh, 21-14. Although showing signs of nervous- ness and over-eagerness, the Mikemen, led by the hard-charging line and by backs like Plourde, Simas and Lucius, showed a well-organized and well-balanced array of power, both offensively and defensively. Plourde and Lucius hit pay dirt in the first half but Clarkson also managed to cross the goal line twice to knot the count at 14-14. However, in the third period Frank Simas plunged across for the deciding score. Art Coggio gave an exhibition in the fine art of drop-kicking as he booted three points over the crossbar. The next game, against Williams, provided some real stiff competition and the best the Squires could do was to gain a 15-13 tie. A few ragged spots early in the game provided trouble for the boys, but once they got started they were very much in the game. Despite line pass work by Simas and Plourde's powerful plunges the Squires could only score twice, but it must be noted that this tie was the only blemish on the Williams record all season. With injuries keeping some of the key men on the sidelines, the Frosh squared off against the small edition of the Middlebury Panthers and were outpointed, 20-13, in the dying minutes of play. This loss, the only one of the season for the Mikemen, gave Middlebury the Frosh Foot- ball State Championship. In this contest, Phil joannides displayed some of the best defensive work seen in these parts in many a year. After this defeat the Squires moved to Cen- tennial Field, where they took on the foe from

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minutes old when Ed Krupinsky fired a 17-yard pass to Bob Knight to put the ball on the five- yard line of New England. Jack Daly swept around right end on the next play to chalk up the first score. It was in the second quarter that Daly really ran wild. On the second play of that period the Floral Park product broke through the middle for seventy-five yards and St. Mike's third score. Again, just before the half ended, jackrabbit took a hand-off from Krupinsky and went fourteen yards to pay dirt. That is an indication of how the field as the Knights ran and passed for a total of one hundred and seventy-five yards. He person- ally gained a large percentage of the yardage and in the third quarter was the victim of a freak play which cost the team its last scoring opportu- nityf He took a pass from Krupinsky in the right flat and began a dash down the sideline with the field judge running neck and neck. When he had outdistanced the last Ace, the field judge bumped him, causing him to stumble and enabling the frantic pursuers to overtake him. Shining on the defense for the Knights were Conley and Klaess. boys spent the afternoon. The others who figured in the csoring were: Dennis, Krupinsky, Cole- man, Borzelleca, Tyl and Deignan. A.I.C. WEEK after the boys ran roughshod over New England they lost a squeaker to Amer- ican International College at Centennial Field in Burlington. A combination of bad breaks and the letdown after the previous week's spree spelled defeat for the Mikemen, the second and last of the season. A.I.C. snatched victory from defeat in pushing over their six-pointer. The Purple and Gold had the ball on the half-yard line of the Aces with first down and goal to go. In the next four downs they lost twenty-six and one-half yards plus the ball. From that point A.I.C. marched seventy- three yards for the only touchdown of the game. jack Daly was again the top performer on the For A.I.C., Santone, the hard-driving fullback, showed himself to be one of the best backs to appear on Centennial Field this season. His smashes through the line were instrumental in the score and his vicious tackles thwarted many a long march by the Purple Knights. N ORWICH HE finale of the season was played at North- field against the Cadets of Norwich in a Green Mountain Conference game. The skies were leaden and the field was wet and muddy, but despite these conditions, unfavorable to a passing game, the Knights countered three times via the air waves to defeat the stubborn Cadets, 19-O. A Krupinsky to Suzio pass late in the third period started the scoring, then in the last period Daly hit Krupinsky for six more. Conley to Wojciechowski ended the scoring for the '48 sea- son.

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the wrong side of the river. Outdoing the per- formance of the Purple Knights against the Cata- mounts, the Frosh slammed out an easy 28-O vic- tory over the out-fought, out-scored Kittens of the University of Vermont. Led by Simas' trusty right arm and the sprinting of Coggio and Plourde, the Frosh humiliated the Kittens by having everything their own way. The granite- like forward wall kept the Vermonters in their own back yard all afternoon. The Purple Squires rolled over Norwich 39-0 to finish the season in fine fashion. With Plourde's 47-yard jaunt paving the way and the line hold- ing the Mountaineer backs to a 17-yard deficit, the Frosh gave notice once again that they were a power to be reckoned with. These boys, who will bolster the already strong varsity, are young and full of fight. Unquestionably there are some of them who will find first string berths open to them. We can be reasonably certain that next year's varsity aggregation will spell many a headache for rival mentors come the fall of '49. Varsity Basketball HE rosy outlook for the current basketball season became even rosier with the appear- ance on the hilltop of the former member of the original Celtics, Benny Borgmann. Benny took over the coaching duties early and soon had the squad cut down to workable size. He built his team around the stars of last year's Freshman team, keeping only John Diz Dean from last season's varsity club. Along with Dean, Markey, Hart, Burzenski and Walsh made up the starting nve, The rest of the team included Pat O'Doherty, Mike Ziter, Angelo Fioroni, Dan Fitzgerald, George Kruse, Ed Krupinsky, Tommy Sullivan and jim Callaghan. The first two games of the season, against Champlain and New England, although victories for the Knights, were ragged affairs with only occasional flashes of the brilliant play which these same boys had exhibited last year as Freshmen. The Champlain game, close until half time, wound up 51-43, while the New England final was 56-32. Eddie Markey was the sparkplug in both these games, caging 15 points the first time out and 12 the second. ln the Lowell Textile game the boys found themselves and turned in as pretty a win as one could desire. The passing clicked beautifully and they seemingly could not miss the hoop as they racked up a 67-28 win with Markey and Bur- zenski pouring in 16 points apiece.