St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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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.

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

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The third face-off of the season permitted us to renew acquaintanceship with the ardent rivals of our first season, St. Patrick's of Stoneham. We found the green-jerseyed lads a trifle weaker than we had expected, and we were able to pierce their net five times while keeping our own inviolate. Scoring honors went to Phillips and Barry for two successful missions apiece, while Mul found the range once. We couldn't help but notice that Malden Catholic had been keep- ing pace with us week by week, and the race began to assume the proportions of a two- team struggle. On January 13th we were introduced to the league's new member, and the neophytes found themselves completely outclassed. Right from the first whistle our stalwarts began to pepper the Lynn goalie, and no less than twelve of our shots dented the strings. In the scoring orgy Mui was responsible for six goals and three assists, the league's top individual record of the season, while Phillips blazed home three markers and played the supporting role on six occasions -the latter also establishing a new record for the Catholic circuit. Barry, with two goals and Bob Murphy with one were the other lamplighters. The league competition reached its first half climax when the two undefeated sextets of the loop faced each other. Both Malden Catholic and the Red and Black had won four straight, and the Boston Press gave plenty of notice to the prospective struggle. Malden got the jump on us right from the start when their right-wing, Gorman, put the puck past Paul McGrath in 58 seconds. Before two minutes more had elapsed the Malden center had added another stinging shot that turned on the red light and we were behind 2-O. Two goals were not enough to disconcert the St. Sebastian's rooters, but they did begin to feel that the fates were not dealing kindly with us when an injury robbed us of the services of Eddie Phillips. Ed had picked up the puck at mid-ice and had headed under full steam for the opponents' goal. He had traversed most of the distance when a legitimate check from a rival defenseman caused him to crash into one of the iron posts supporting the net, the same post that had creased his ribs in the Mission game the year before. It was his right knee that received the full force of the impact, and it was feared at first that the knee-cap had been broken. With Phillips' injury the team suffered a paralyzing blow, and the revamped line-up, that moved Murphy to wing and sent Ellard to a defense post, yielded another goal before the end of the first period. The two succeed- ing stanzas saw our stalwarts pressing with might and main, but the Malden defense proved impregnable until half-way through the final stanza when Mul managed to find the range and sink a lone, but consoling tally. In the meantime, the Fellsway lads had added another marker in the second period, so that the final tabulation against us was 4-1. On January 27th, the opening of the league's second half found us engaging St. Mary's of Waltham, and, weakened as we were by the loss of Phillips, we received more competi- tion than we wanted from the vastly-im- proved Watch City skaters. The final buzzer sounded with us out in front by a 5-3 margin that had been amassed by the joint efforts of Obie, Hank and Mul g the captain scoring three times to nullify the heroic efforts of McCusker and Bourque, the Waltham lumi- naries. The next three weeks brought us successive victories over St. Clement's 8-O, St. Mary's of Lynn 7-O and St. Patrick's 3-1. The first fray was held on a Sunday but it was no day of rest for the Red and Black as they skated rings around our Somerville opponents, Hank registering three tallies, Mul and Murph two apiece, and young McAuliffe a singleton. The Lynn contest saw Henry, lack and Bob repeat their marksmanship and chalk up exactly the same number of goals as they had garnered the previous Sunday. As the score indicates the Stoneham game was a tight affair that had a Green tinge to