St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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Barry V 1943 44 DEFENSE Collins and U'B1'icn Phillips

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the period and scored twice, before Mul revived our spirits by tallying once. In the second stanza, the Hibernians added two more, while our best was Phillips' singleton. Trailing then by two points we came out for our last chance and Hank set the pace by driving home a well-placed pass. Sensing the threat, Stoneham pulled out all the stops and made another to lead now, 543. We were not through yet, however, for Mul once more snaked his way through the de- fense and tricked the enemy goalie to change the tune to 5-4. In the remaining few min- utes we made it as hot as we could for the St. Patrick's netman, but he was equal to the occasion and thwarted our every attempt. When the final horn blew the spectators gave a demonstrationiof spontaneous and pro- longed applause that lasted fully five minutes. We ended the first round of the league schedule by skating circles around St. Clem- ent's and carrying away a 6-2 verdict, com- piled by Mulhern, Phillips and Ellard. Mui had his name announced three times and Phillips heard his, twice. When the half- way totals were counted, itiwas found that the standing put St. Patrick's first, Malden second and the Red and Black, third. The second half of the schedule got under way on February 19th when we polished off St. Mary's Sal, and thereby revenged the defeat the Waltham lads inflicted on us the night of our league debut. The three regular forwards all scored, Phillips getting three, while Mul and Hank had to be content with one apiece. The defensive play of O'Brien, Collins and McGrath also featured this afternoon contest. A week later, against Mission, we also had a rather easy time of it, although the Roxbury team held us to six tallies and succeeded in registering two themselves. The marksmen this time were Phillips with three, Mulhern with two and Hank with one. The victory was a costly one, however, for, after scoring his last goal, Phillips was unable to check his momentum and consequently crashed head on into one of the metal posts that support the cage. His services were lost to the team for ten days. On the first Saturday in March we tangled again with Malden Catholic, both teams being doubly anxious to take the contest since the first meeting had ended in a 1--1 deadlock. Mul put us out in front before the game was many minutes old by a beautiful solo that paid dividends. Although the pressure was terrific all through the fracas, Paul McGrath was unyielding and frustrated every Malden attempt until the last two minutes of the third period. It was then that our lack of reserves told a tale, for with our martyred regulars practically out on their feet , Paul Kelley was able to score twice in a hundred and twenty seconds, once on a solo and once on a pass from Walsh. The win put Malden out in front in the league race, but, as one of the newspapers put it: If Phillips had been in the game to help Mulhern and Barry along, St. Sebastian's might have been able to knock Malden Catholic out of the fight for league leader- ship. It was not until the following week, how- ever, that Vin's boys reached the peak of their season's form. Their top exhibition was put on for the benefit of St. Patrick's, the league-leading foe that had taken us into camp 5-4, earlier in the season. Phillips was back and he machine-gunned Mul's feed to hang up the first marker of the game, half- way through the second period. We clung to this frail lead until the third period when a pass, relayed from Mosley to jordan and then to Ed Kelley, was banged past Paul McGrath by the eagle-eyed Kell . From that point on, both sides gave everything they had, peppering the rival goalies time and time again. When we scored again it was on a beautiful piece of timing that de- servedly gave us the decision. With Mul in the penalty box, the Stoneham gliders bore down on Paul McGrath in flying wedge formation, doing their best to take advantage of our short-handedness. In the melee that ensued around our cage, Hank was finally

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able to steal the puck just at the precise instant that Mulhern was paroled. Noting Mul's arrival on the ice, Barry passed to him on the blue line, whereupon the league's leading scorer, with no one between him and the goalie, dribbled in, feinted the guardian out of position and tipped the rubber into the net. It was a thrilling ending to what the reporters called the most spectacular clash of the league season. Our season ended on March 18th when we closed with a win over St. Clement's 7-1. In this anti-climax, our points were garnered by Mulhern, Barry, Phillips and Ellard- Mul pushing home three and Hank two. This final night's play found Malden Catholic crowned champion, St. Patrick's taking the runner-up post and ourselves having to be content with third honors. In the post-season balloting, the League, the players and the coaches were unanimous in voting our Jack Mulhern the outstanding player of the circuit. When the scoring totals were compiled it was revealed that our sophomore star led all the other icemen of the league, with Ed Phillips finishing Number 2 man to his own team mate. In the defensive department we also took honors by sharing with Malden Catholic the crown of least-scored-on team. Each team be- grudged seventeen goals to its combined opposition. Paul McGrath ended up as the second leading goal-tender. Outside the Catholic Hockey League com- petition we engaged in other forays that brought us wins over St. Marks C8-D, Browne and Nichols C14-OD, Noble and Greenough C4-25 and Angel Guardian C4-1, 5-31 All in all our experiment in hockey circles was pre-eminently successful, and our first sextet was highly instrumental in put- ting up St. Sebastian's name in the lights of popular acclaim. In view of the success attained by the first sextet to wear the Red and Black, the arrival of the 1944-45 season was hailed with en- thusiasm. Coach Murphy sent out the clarion call for candidates just before Thanks- giving, and thirty enthusiastic hopefuls pre- sented themselves to Vin and Captain Jack Mulhern. The only regular from the pre- vious year's team who failed to put in an appearance was Jimmy Collins who had enrolled in the V-12 unit at Holy Cross. Preliminary practice sessions were held in the cage but when outdoor ice became avail- able we moved to near-by ponds. Our practice eyes were focused on the Catholic League competition which was slated to begin on December 9th. The make-up of the loop was to be the same as in 1943-44, with one exception: the Mission aggregation had resigned its membership and had been replaced by St. Mary's of Lynn. We had finished third in the last year's cam- paign and we had high hopes of winning more honors in the season ahead. The first Saturday night of league com- petition found us paired with St. Mary's of Waltham, and five of our icemen were easily identified by the public that had so enthusi- astically supported them the year before. The only new face was that of Bob Murphy, a thirteen-year-old freshman, at the defense post vacated by jimmy Collins. This open- ing exhibition was satisfactory enough be- cause the Mulhern-Phillips-Barry line func- tioned smoothly and demonstrated that the passage of a year had not impaired their team play. Each of them scored a goal, and a fourth was added by the fire chief to make our final edge, 4-1. A week later we drew St. Clement's of Somerville as opponents, and we unleashed a furious scoring attack that produced eleven counts. This time it was Phillips who paced the onslaught by garnering five tallies, while Captain Mulhern was registering three and Hank two. The odd goal was netted by jack Slattery, a capable reserve. The early lead which had been piled up enabled the coach to season his reserve strength, and he took the opportunity to throw Bill Cryan, Tommy Dunbar, Tom Dewire, Johnny Ellard and others into the breach.