St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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UNDER PRESSURE Murph feeds one out in the second Malden fray. THEY SHALL NOT PASS A lone Malden attacker gives us an anxious mo- ment in the Champion- ship. face and weaved his way to take the first shot at an opposing net but his bid was denied. From that moment on, Malden seemed to dominate the play because their depth permitted frequent substitutions and gave them the advantage of an ever-fresh line to pour on the offense. At 4:30 of the first period, their second-liner Al Gubbins powered a shot which Gibby knocked down only to have Reboulet collect it and push it past Bruce. Less than a minute later, Mal- den's high-powered attack paid dividends again when Miller pounced upon Ford's re- bound and whizzed it into the strings to lengthen their lead to 2-0. In contrast to our opponents' technique, we seemed to be ineffective for, whenever a Red and Black skater took possession of the puck, two rivals descended upon him from either side TAKING IT DOWN The Catholic Lea ue's hi h 8 8 scorer threatens the Som- erville net. and harried him so that he lost the rubber by the time that he had reached their de- fense. This over aggressive type of play cost Malden's DeGirolamo three penalties! in the first period and eventually lost us the services of our spark-plug, Bob Murphy,! when he suffered a torn ligament in they second chapter. Meanwhile, the second-halfl winners chalked up a third goal at 3:00 ofg the middle session as the result of Smith's success with a Donahue pass. With Murphy out of action, Andy McAuliffe filled in at' center ice and did a magnificent job win- ning sow, of the face-offs and carrying the, battle to the enemy at all times. That it 1 was just not our night was demonstrated at! the close of the second period. A face-offl was called for outside the Malden cage andl joe Deignan raked in the disc and slammedi it into the net with one continuous motion.i The officials, however, ruled that the puck had not entered the cage before the buzzer 1 4 sounded to end the session and the result J

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DANGEROUS FACE-OFF Murph vies with Ford of Malden on a face-off in front of our net. the right hand side of the cage. In forty- fnve seconds more we added a second score on Murphy's unassisted effort that blazed its way home from the enemy blue line. At that point, we seemed to lose the charm for no matter how much we peppered Shea, the St. C1ement's goalie, our pains went un- rewarded. Time and time again our for- wards rifled bullets that hit him or the up- rights and yet we were not able to in- crease our margin. During that opening period, when we were besieging the Som- erville citadel and keeping Shea ever alert, the Red and Black put on as line a demon- stration of passing as Catholic League con- tests have ever produced. With us domi- nating the play so completely in the first half of the game, our rivals had little chance of bothering Bruce too much, but, at 5:18 of the middle portion, Plummer hit the bull's-eye and cut our lead to 2-l. Be- fore the session ended, however, Murph gave us back our former edge on a beauti- ful piece of marksmanship. Time was rap- idly running out in the chapter when Bob collected the puck in our zone and began one of his typical hikes. As he swept over the rival blue line, he found himself being forced toward the boards by a rival defense- man. Fading artfully, he bided his time un- til he drew the St. Clement's man over far enough to permit him to bullet a drive that cut into the net just inside the right hand post. This bit of strategy was our last suc- cess of the night and, when Colbert scored for Somerville in the last stanza, it proved to be the deciding marker in our 3-2 vic- tory. After the showers were taken and the equipment was packed, everyone stayed to watch the bitter struggle between Waltham and Malden to determine which sextet would meet us in the play-off. We were more than rewarded by a titanic struggle that ended in a 3-3 tie, but that deadlock was in Malden's favor for it gave Coach Kenty's lads the second half crown by a single point and nominated them to oppose us in the contest that would decide the League championship. Two nights later we were back on the same ice at 6 o'clock to contend with the Malden sextet that had held us to a tie and then defeated us during the regular season. just before the face-off, the Red and Black gliders received a telegram conveying the best wishes of the Headmaster, Fr. Keating, and the members of the Alpine Club who were in New Hampshire on their annual junket. When the puck was dropped to start the proceedings, Bob Murphy won the

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was that joe's heroic effort went for naught. In the final stanza neither team was able to find the range and hostilities ended with Malden the victor and League Champion by a 3-0 verdict. Naturally, the Red and Black icemen were crestfallen to have gone so far and yet to have failed in the last battle. However, if the defeat was attributable to any weakness on our part, it was only a weakness in replacement material that pre- vented us from matching the fast-flying champions. Toward the end of the League season, the coaches met together to select the All- Star group that would compete against the G.B.I. Second All-Star team at the Arena on February 22nd. As a result of the ballot- ing, St. Sebastian's was well represented on the Catholic squad by Bob Murphy, Bob Egan and jack Boyle. Murphy and Boyle were picked by Coach Kenty of Malden, who handled the All-Stars, to start the hol- iday game and they gave a fine account of themselves. Egan saw service later in the day and helped to spark the Catholic League entry even though it was beaten rather de- cisively, 5-1. All during the Winter we were outlucked in the matter of playing outdoor Hockey on private school rinks. As in other years, games had been scheduled with teams like St. Mark's, Middlesex and Cranwell, but the lack of ice caused them to be postponed time and again, and then eventually can- celled. To close the ice campaign of 1946-47, the annual Red-Blue game was played at the Arena on Sunday, March 2nd. Bob Mur- phy was designated Red captain and Andy McAuliffe was given the leadership of the Blues. When the rival squads were an- nounced, it was discovered that the Reds possessed a terrific advantage on paper, be- cause they had in their ranks five of the six regulars who had held down starting posts on the Varsity sextet. This was offset, to some extent, by the fact that Bruce Harri- gan was the Blue net-keeper and by johnny Ellard and jack Slattery rallying to the Blue cause in an hour of need. When the Reds forged into an early lead, strangely enough it was not one of their powerhouses who turned on the red light, but Henry Lane who had started at the center ice spot. Hank's score was an unassisted venture that passed Bruce at 5:30 of the opening period. Not satisfied with this slender margin, Bob Murphy's sextet kept pressing constantly but their efforts went unrewarded until late in the game. In the meantime, the Blues chalked up a gift tally in the middle frame when Slats directed a pass from the boards in the enemy zone to Andy McAuliffe at the mouth of the cage. The feed was partly intercepted by Murph but in the process the rubber caromed off his stick and it took only a suggestion from Andy to have it find a resting place behind Harold Field in the Red net. At the opening of the final session, the count was still knotted 1-1, but it did not remain so for long. Immediately after the face off, john Ellard broke up a Red push and started on a solo jaunt for the op- posing goal. Stickhandling nicely, he car- ried to within 15 feet of the citadel and then blazed a shot which Field deflected, only to have Johnny pounce in, capture the puck and tuck it deftly into the left hand corner of the cage. Stung by this blow to their pride, the Reds poured one assault after the other on the unyielding Bruce, but the Var- sity net-minder was equal to every crisis. At 10:30 the Blues added another marker, just to make it safe. In a melee in front of the Red goal, Ed Quirk established possession of the disc and flipped back a timely pass to Captain Andy McAuliffe who found a loop- hole in the rival defense and rifled home his team's final goal. Within a minute, the Reds got this one back on Murphy's solo drive