St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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sure of displaying his wares before his fel- low townsmen and his boot veered off from the uprights. After the ensuing kick-off, Waltham made a gallant bid to tie the score before the half ended. Wally Coleman returned Bill Harwood's kick to the home 45, where- upon Jim Hart skirted left end and, with the aid of some very neat blocking, ven- tured as far as our 23 before being thrown out of bounds. The passing attack that followed this gain, however, was ineffective and we took over to rack up two more first downs before half-time. , In the third period we lengthened our lead to 13-0. With the home team receiv- ing and carrying three times without effect, we took possession via the Punt route on our own 33 and refused to be stopped until we had another touchdown. Hilt Collupy surprised the defenders with a 17 yard end- around carry, and in quick succession Tom Green and Joe Jenks registered individual first downs. At that point a jump pass from Green to Collupy Put us on the 12, where Jenks stepped in to roar through tackle on a faked duplication of the pass play. The extra point was kicked into our total by Pete Pitts' -placement. Far from conceding the battle, St. Mary's managed to penetrate to our 17 in the same stanza. Bill Forster, the Purple sharp- shooter, faded back to his own 33 and let fly a long pass which Wally Coleman gath- ered in on our 25 and escorted to our 17 before stepping out of the field of play. That was their last real threat, however, and we went on to score once more before calling it a day. Battling desperately to avert a whitewash, Waltham preferred to gamble on passes, after taking a McAuliffe kick on its own 31, and, when the last-down aerial failed, it was an easy matter for us to capitalize on our position by two short for- wards launched from Tom Green to Dave Hanron and Collupy, respectively, the last one being good for our final six points. Shortly thereafter the contest ended and we had chalked up our third victory of the season. The fact that we had remained in the , undefeated class up to this time brought us to the attention of the Boston newsmen and THE WHAMMY on October 50th Fred Foye devoted his fea- ON U5 f ture story in the Boston Traveler to a col- I , F1 umn-long comparison of the football rec-' XQL ords of St. Sebastian's and St. John's Prep. 1 Xf- To crown this public recognition of our prowess on the gridiron, the team picture, captioned Pride of St. Sebastian's, ac- companied the article and presented a for- midable array of warriors to the sports fans of New England. It was, indeed, a fortunate occurrence for us that Mr. Foye publicized us when he did, because we were to tumble down from the undefeated class in very short order. All Saints' Day, November lst, brought us a visit from a strong Lawrence Academy eleven that was only too anxious to avenge the defeat that we handed them on their own field in 1945. We more than held our own during the first period which saw neither team able to make very substantial gains. Quarterback sneaks by our Doyle and their Rapsis produced the only first downs of the stanza, although their achieve- ment on our 29 gave us temporary concern until Jack Darwin and Gene Pierotti roared through to smother attempted passes and drive the invaders back to a safe distance at midfield. In the second chapter we be- gan auspiciously enough with Joe Jenks driving through left tackle for a 16 yard gain, but a devastating fumble three plays later gave the Groton lads possession and the opportunity to drive goalward. Having barely eked out a first down on our 30, the visitors grew air-minded, using first a jump pass to Rapsis and then a long aerial to the elongated Cronin who hauled it out of the stratosphere and carried into the end zone. McNeil's placement racked up a 7-0 lead for the visitors. With five minutes of the half remaining, the Arrows came to life and punched out three successive first downs before losing command through an interception. Doyle's sneak chalked up the first, Andy came through for the second and third, but the 85

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attack died on the Lawrence 25 when an enemy back snared a Boyle pass. When ac- tion resumed after half-time, the game set- tled down to a battle of frontiers, both for- ward walls proving stubborn to the point where they refused to yield the necessary yardage. Groton received a temporary ad- vantage when it recovered a fumble on our 19, but on the very next play Jack Boyle restored the status quo by intercepting on the Arrow 25. The final period witnessed the launching of our last threat of the day. Set up by Pete Pitts' recovery of an enemy fumble on the visitors' 35, McAuliffe and Boyle chopped their way to the 12, only to see their work undone when Frank Hernberg, the Groton safety man, pocketed a pass that was intended for Jack Slattery in the flat and raced 90 yards along the sideline to register six more points. For the second time, McNeil's placement was good and the game ended shortly thereafter with Law- rence the victor, 14-0. The defeat was our third in three years, and occasion marked our first loss to a Massachusetts eleven in the same period. Due to the inability of a Boston high school team to keep an engagement with us, the St. Clement's of Somerville contest on November 17th was our next engagement and also our final gridiron battle of the sea- son. Entering the game we were severely handicapped by the absence of four regu- lars who had fallen under a scholastic ban, but Coach Murphy did a splendid job of re- vamping the line-up in the emergency and a competent eleven lined up to represent the Red and Black on Dilboy Field that rainy Sunday afternoon. We started off successfully enough, Boyle and Jenks carry- ing for consecutive first downs to Somer- ville's 45, but a 15 yard penalty called against us was followed by a freak pass from center that St. Clement's recovered back on our 25. Capitalizing on this break, the home team swept our end for 23 yards and then plunged across for a touchdown. Johnny Ellard frustrated the conversion ef- fort, however, by falling on a fumbled oval and keeping the margin to 6-0. Out to get back on even terms at least, Jack Cremmen returned the kick-off to our 38, Boyle, Jenks and Hanron collaborated to reach midfield, whereupon the Belmont Bul- let powered a solo to the home 37. In the next series of tries, when it was fourth down and 2 to go, we elected to send Jenks through the line rather than kick, but Joe's valiant effort was inches short and we sur- rendered ownership. Minutes later the fates smiled on us for a change when we re- covered a bad pass from center and found ourselves on the St. Clement 13. Striking while the iron was hot, Quarterback Tom Green came up with a highly deceptive play that caused even the officials to follow the wrong man. Green, having taken the ball from center, faked a routine present to Boyle and handed the oval instead to Half- back Dick Doyle who played his role so well that an enemy simply brushed him aside as a casual blocker. With the entire Somerville secondary devoting their atten- tion to Boyle, Dick was able to amble across the goal line leisurely and hold up the pig- skin before the startled gaze of officials and opponents. Pete Pitts' placement try was beamed well, but it hit the upright and we had to be satisfied with a 6-6 tie. The first chapter ended at that point, but the home team used the second period to forge into the lead again. After Bill Har- wood's kick, we succeeded in wresting the pigskin from St. Clement's only once and that series ended with us failing again by inches to make the required distance. Vary- ing their attack from ground to air, the Somerville lads marched steadily on our goal. Vin Greene gave everything he had on a splendid tackle that delayed the score temporarily, only to have the enemy plunge across on a fourth-down try from our 2. We checked the point after, however, by bat- ting down a pass. When the two teams returned from the field house, they spent most of the third quarter in fruitless quests of a first down.