St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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taking turns scoring, true enough, Mul had spent the greater part of the game feeding his wings, perfectly content to set up the plays. Another feature of the night was the roar that greeted the appearance of our diaper line composed of Kelly, Regan and O'Brien. Every player on the squad saw action. The easy contest of the week before was in no way duplicated when we crossed sticks with St. Mary's of Waltham in our second engagement of the infant season. Vastly improved over the previous year and still operating with Bourque as their spearhead, the Watch City lads were very definitely pointed for this game with St. Sebastian's. The technique they employed was to go all out for a single tally and then bar the door . It worked with some success, indeed, for early in the fray Bourque laced one into the cage, and thereafter the Red and Black attacking wave had to contend with live Walthamites stationed right on the blue line. Mul in particular received the undivided at- tention of three defenders, but, despite their vigilance, Mr. Hockey scored the equal- izing tally in the dying minutes of the tilt. The opposition's tactics prevented the game from being a thriller, while lack of capable substitutes demanded almost continuous ser- vice on the part of our starting sextet. In order to keep a scheduled appointment with Malden Catholic on December 29th, the Red and Black icemen had to conquer the year's worst blizzard, but Nature's variety was mild compared to the first-period blizzard of goals unleashed by Malden. Evidently not at their best mettle after a two-week lay-off, our skaters were lethargic and could not cope with the opposition's dazzling play until Smith, McGinley, Sheehan and Donahue had dented our strings-and all in the opening period. Rebounding vigorously, St. Sebastian's battled furiously through the two remaining stanzas, McGinley's score in the second and Mul's in the third typifying the tight play of those chapters. Wave after Wave of our attack bore down on the Malden cage, but Roche was equal to all emergencies, save one. The final score of 5-1 told the story of the first period, but certainly not of the whole game. The turn of the New Year started us off on a more satisfactory note than the blue note on which 1945 had ended. Facing St. Patrick's of Stoneham, we sensed from the start that the opposition had taken Stop Mu1hern for a motto. The rough type of play eventually boomeranged, however, and we were able to chalk up a 3-1 verdict. Leading the attack, Mul personally scored two tallies and assisted in Bob Murphy's registering of the third. On offense, the Red and Black manifested a marked improvement in play co-ordination, while the all- Belmont defense of McGrath, Ellard and Boyle was superb. Taking their first bus trip of the season, our gliders matched themselves against the icemen of St. Mark's School, Southborough, on Wednesday, January 9th. Finding the outdoor rink strange and rather confining, St. Sebastian's could not seem to get going until late in the game. Then too the defense style of hockey, habitually employed by private schools, was bothersome and our first counter came only in the second period from Mul's blade. The final chapter, how- ever, gave us five tallies with Slats and Murph registering two apiece and Jack Mulhern another. After the contest the squad re- ceived a most hospitable reception in the magnificent Memorial Gymnasium, and a warm invitation to play in future years was extended to what the St. Mark's Coach termed the best team I have seen in years . In returning to League competition on the following Saturday to tangle with St. Clement's of Somerville, the wearers of the Red and Black found themselves definitely underdogs, if they were to believe the Boston press. Our opponents, formerly a League doormat, had gone all out to produce a winner this year, with the emphasis on early and late practice ice and professional coaching. In this contest, however, St. Sebastian's reached its season's peak and registered a clean-cut 4-O win. With the

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34 victories, 5 defeats and 2 ties. The year's work was crowned when Captain Mulhern, Dan O'Brien, Hank Barry, Paul McGrath and Bob Murphy were chosen All-Catholic' '. At the same time, that modern wonder- worker, our Coach, Vin Murphy, had his genius recognized in the appointment to handle the constellation of stars as Coach. The enthusiasm engendered by the exploits of the 1944-45 icemen manifested itself when S5 candidates appeared to be tried out for places on the sextet that would wear St. Sebastian's colors during our Senior year. Once again a classmate of ours, Paul McGrath, had been chosen Captain and, of course, last year's Captain, Jack Mulhern, was sure to hold high the banners of the Class of '46. However, two personalities, who had done much to enhance the School's reputation on the ice, were missing: Hank Barry and ex- Captain Dan O'Brien. Losing them by graduation created a serious problem for Coach Murphy, but we felt that if anyone would be able to meet the situation, Vin was sure to be the one. Once again we were to enter into Catholic League competition, but this time we would be under the double handicap of having lost carrier A iff' if 4, We ,i W i me-as-wafer! in c e fs'-1-'f-a9a'.Pq'4 uv- aM' 5 QVQJQ 0. 'rt 1-fm- Sax if , -. .5517 if valuable, experienced players and also of having every team in the circuit point for games with St. Sebastian's, last year's co- champions. Preliminary practice and squad try-outs over with, we made our initial ap- pearance ofthe 1945-46 season at the Skating Club with St. Mary's of Lynn as opponents. Fans of other years recognized the familiar forms of McGrath in the nets, Johnny Ellard at right defense, Bob Murphy in the left wing and the incomparable Mul at center ice. Two new faces were closely scrutinized, however, and they proved to be a speedy right wing, Jack Slattery, and a new power- house at left defense, Jack Boyle. St. Sebastian fans were not able to appraise the merit of the latest Red and Black ice edition too accurately, it seemed, because Lynn did not offer too much in the way of offensive strength. Spearheaded by Mul's unassisted opening score, we registered two goals in the first period, three in the second and two more in the final. In the final tabu- lation, Mul rated credit for three goals and two assists, Slats had four goals and one assist, while our other wing, Murphy, also drew mention for an assist. The Boston papers referred next morning to the Alphonse- Gaston act put on by Mul and Slats in THEY DID NOT PASS McGrath smothers a St Clement's bid with the help of Gibbons who has effec tively checked the enemy

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Having broken up an attack, Bill athers un steam to take it game less then five minutes old and our ice- men handicapped by Jack Slattery's banish- ment, Mull won a face-off, stiekhandled warily in front of the terrified defense, then suddenly rifled the disc between the defense- men and past the bewildered goalie. On the ensuing face-off, and with Slats still in the toils of the law, Mr. Hockey used the same cat-and-mouse technique to register exactly sixteen seconds after his iirst tally. Completely unsettled by Mul's dazzling feat, the Somerville lads were never in the game thereafter, and Mul was able to add a third tally in the second period, while Murph contributed the fourth in the final stanza. On Tuesday, January 15, we paid a neigh- borly call at the Rivers School rink in Chestnut Hill, and completely outclassed a valiant home sextet by the score of 8-1. Allowing our opponents to use a coach as net-minder did not prevent Andy McAuliffe from registering four times, nor Mul from getting three, nor Lane McCarthy from con- tributing his iirst goal of the season. Bob Murphy shone in a supporting role, chalking up six assists. The entire squad saw action, THE GIBBONS EX PRESS 3 l down A SLATS PASS ack poke-passes to his wing from a face-ofi and Bill Morrissey did an excellent job as understudy to Paul McGrath. Inaugurating the final half of league com- petition, Captain Paul turned in his second successive shut-out, while his mates were tallying six times against Lynn on January 19th. Not to be outdone by the forward line that tallied four markersCSlats 2, Mul 1, Murph lj, both defensemen, Jack Boyle and Johnny Ellard, turned in a score apiece. Boyle's counter came on a particularly clever pass from Mul, while Ellard's was in keeping with the fact that he has shown the most improvement of any player in the circuit. All