St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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Eventually the rain stopped and we drew a beautiful Sunday afternoon for our visit to Brookline Athletic Field. To replace the injured Dave O'Connor, Bud Fisher was pro- moted to the starting team, Duke Demeo was at right end and Charlie Sullivan was back at his tackle post. Having won the toss and elected to receive, the Red and Black started to roll at once with Paul Carey and Bill O'Brien registering a first down between them. As luck would have it, a fumble on the very next play lost us the ball, but, after an exchange of punts on which Gibby gained 7 yards for us, St. Mary's reciprocated and Ed Ryan recovered on the Brookline 19. Gibby's 8 yard tackle thrust was nullified by a holding penalty against us and, when Tommy Green let go a 45 yard pass, Billy was only able to get his finger tips on it and it went incomplete. At the quarter mark, the home team's offense started to click and it rolled up three consecutive first downs until Tommy Green stepped in with an interception at our 17 that gave Obie a chance to deliver a personal hrst down at our 32. We lost the formula at that point and were forced to punt, yet Green regained possession by capturing a fumble, only to have a Wally MacKinnon pass intercepted by Trahon. St, Mary's had time to punch out two more first downs in the half, but Murray Regan, jimmy Coleman and John Condon came up with some beautiful defensive work to inflict 5 and 10 yard losses on the home team just before the rest period. Early in the third period it still seemed to be anybody's ball game, for the rival lines held well and the teams exchanged kicks. The hrst break in the defenses came when Brookline completed a short pass that was followed shortly by a 15 yard penalty against St. Sebastian's, the ball resting then on our 19. Unable to swing Duke Demeo or break through Charlie Sullivan, our opponents took to the air and completed a pass that was good for six points, a minute later, Simard's placement raised the margin to 7. After the ensuing kick-off, Paul Carey tried to ignite a spark by plunging for a Hrst down, but a punt exchange intervened and the third quarter ended before Tommy Green earned another with a 13 yard run after vainly searching for a likely pass receiver. Another 15 yard penalty was no help to us at that point and, to wipe out the deficit, Green attempted to pass to Regan only to have Simard intercept. In the next series of tries, St, Mary's clicked on a short heave that pulled in our secondary and then resorted to a longer aerial that was completed by Myles Kelly to make the score, 13-0. When the conversion proved unsuccessful, an onside kick kept the ball in the enemy's possession and we had only a chance for two short gains before the clock demanded a cessation of activities. Practically every player on the squad saw action and the younger players like Ernie Woelfel, jimmy Delay and Ed Connors gained valuable experience during their term of service, All season long, the Thayer game had loomed up as one of the hardest tests on the schedule because the Braintree team was a star-studded aggregation that boasted of several former high school standouts in its ranks. The South Shore club visited St. Sebastian Field on Saturday, November 6th, and was greeted by the best brand of Football shown by the Red and Black all year. Knowing our unimpressive record, Thayer did not start its first string backfield and we were far from our full strength, especially after having lost Bill Gibbons through a back injury the preceding Thursday. However, Murray Regan took over Gibby's backheld assignments and jim Coleman, a neophyte at the art, was kept in readiness for the kicking chores. No appreciable gain was registered by either side in its first series of tries, but the morale of the Red and Black was visibly strength- ened when .Iimmy Coleman stepped back to his own 25 and calmly delivered a sky- scraping punt that bounced sharply and went out of bounds on the Thayer 11. Satisfied with a ground attack, the visitors proceeded to ground out a series of five consecutive first downs that had carried as far as the St. Sebastian 16 when the quarter ended. They did manage to reach our 12 after the exchange of goals, yet we forced them to hand over the oval without any further damage. Delighted at the stand that had been made, the Red and Black put on a mild counter offensive of its own, pounding out two first downs and stopping only when a pass interception snapped the string. In came the Thayer .-I 125 1-.

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Starting all over again, Bill O'Brien carried Toland's kick back to our 24 and three plunges were effective enough to average 5 yards a try until an offside penalty forced Tommy Green to essay a pass to Gibby that was intercepted by the ubiquitous Toland and brought to the home 37. Dave Connor was hurt on the play and jim Harnedy replaced him, while Charlie Sullivan and Dave Keelan went in to spell Ed Ryan and Paul Carey. That the Weston team did no harm was due to the fact that Frank Murphy fell on a lateral fumble five plays later and regained possession for the Red and Black. just before the quarter ended, after we had been pushed back to our own 20, Gibby pulled out his best boot of the year, a 62 yard beauty that carried to the Weston 28 and took the pressure off our weary eleven, Entering the game at that point, Murray Regan showed his defensive talents by taking a Toland pass away from two rival receivers and allowing St. Sebastian's to start the second quarter in possession of the pigskin. Auspiciously enough, Tommy Green carried for a first down when jim Harnedy opened up a nice hole and then Reed Gomperts and Paul Carey made 4 yards apiece before 'Green changed the tempo with a short pass to jim Hefler in the right flat that gave us the necessary distance at the Weston 36. Three plays later, however, the same pass boomeranged and was snared by the rival Brouilette and the coaches took advantage of the situation to send in fresh replacements, Dick Schiffman, Owen Dugan, Dick Sullivan and Bud Fisher. With the home team making two consecutive first downs, there was time only for Paul Carey to hammer out the required yardage before the half ended. After the rest period, there was no great damage done by either side until Gibby punted to Toland on the home 40 and the slippery back ran it back 35 yards to our 25. Even then no immediate danger was sensed when two line plays were smothered by our frontier, but, on third down, Toland fired a perfect strike to Brouilette and the half- back carried it across to make our deficit read, 12-0. A low placement kick failed to add to the Weston margin, but a deep kick-off and speedy coverage by the rival ends put us on the spot once more at our own 5. To make matters worse, we shifted into the single wing and, when the pass came to Gibby on his wrong side, he was thrown over the goal line and the home team scored a safety that made their lead, 14-0. At that point, Bill Carey booted to the home 35 and Toland made a 50 yard return, yet Weston was detected holding on the play and the ball was set down on our rivals' 42. In less time than it takes to tell it, the Townies pounded out a first down on the ground and then launched a 30 yard aerial that was completed on our 7. just then we shifted sides and put on a determined goal line stand that wrested possession of the oval from the surging foe and Tommy Green carried on a 21 yard end sweep that put us out from under the shadow of our own posts. Passes were in order at that point and there developed an aerial duel between Green and Toland, with the St. Sebastian captain intercepting two heaves of his adversary and the Weston boy taking a pass from jim Hefier on the home 12. Our last bid for a consolation score came when Tommy faded back to midfield and floated a for- ward to Murray Regan and the mighty mite completed it in the midst of three defenders just over the goal line. Our jubilation was short lived, however, for Umpire Holt dropped a flag and explained that the play was called back because Ralph Donnelly was guilty of illegal use of hands, even though our iron-man center had been occupied as usual in snapping back the ball. Time ran out shortly thereafter and we were forced to accept our third defeat of the season. Plagued as we were by minor injuries sustained in the Weston clash, we were sur- prised to learn that our next scheduled foe, Christopher Columbus, was in more desperate straits then we and had to ask to be excused from the meeting with St. Sebastian's. To bridge this gap, a game was hastily arranged with St, Charles of Waltham for Sunday, October 24, to be played as part of the first schoolboy doubleheader ever to take place in the Watch City. Luck was not with us however and, when rain caused postponement of the game to Monday and then to Tuesday, it was decided that cancellation was in order in view of the fact that we were taking on St. Mary's of Brookline the following Sunday. -L 124 1-2

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END JAUNT Bill Gibbons Carries Against St. Marys of Brookline. heavy artillery at that point to have Clark Hallissey complete a pass from Thurlow and then make a 20 yard end sweep that carried him across for the first score. The extra point was missed and, on the kick-off, the visitors were penalized 15 yards for roughness. Even that was no help, however, because a fourth down fumble on our part let the Braintree lads take over on our 28. Hoping to beat the clock and chalk up another score before half-time, Hallissey passed to Dick Cox and it took everything Murray Regan had to bring down his fellow Townsman short of the goal line. A moment later, jim Harnedy stepped into the hero's role by falling on a Dunphy fumble and preventing the expected score, The Thayer hrst backfield was still present when play resumed and they took full advantage of an early fumble of ours to drive for a second T.D. In this offensive, Dunphy, Tagliano and Cox divided the carrying and it was Dunphy who bulled his way through center for the score after which the conversion put us behind 13-O, Quite appropriately it was a Paul Carey fumble recovery that spurred us on to a counter attack that was productive of three straight first downs. In this surge Wally MacKinnon, Paul Carey, Tommy Green and Dave Keelan played the principal parts and the high point was a 20 yard aerial from Tommy to Paul. just then our luck changed when a back in motion nullified a brilliant pass completion by Jim Coleman and shortly thereafter we lost possession. Another fumble recovery in the final stanza, this one by Frank Renaud, set the stage for a very consoling St. Sebastian score. Taking over at midneld, Tommy Green coolly faded back and fired a close to 50 yard pass right down the middle. Mean- while Paul Carey had streaked down the right sideline and suddenly he cut in sharply to take the bomb over his shoulder in the midst of three defenders. Witli Bill O'Brien T-1 126 1-1