1979 Skaters brawl as Carroll defeats Ryan

A full-scale brawl near the end of Archbishop Carroll’s 7-1 win over Archbishop Ryan last night cost No. 1-ranked Carroll five suspensions and cast grave doubts on its ability to finish the regional ice hockey tournament.
Carroll Coach Gary Vetre, who ran on the ice during the fight in the Face-Off Circle Rink, was also suspended. Fighting in area scholastic hockey results in automatic suspensions of players for the remainder of any tournament. That will cost Car-roll its two star defensemen, Carmen DiGiandomenico and Kim Vasys. Carroll is scheduled to play William Tennent at 9:30 p. m. tomorrow night at Lafayette Gardens, King of Prussia, after Tennent’s 6-5 loss to Malvern Prep. Tennent and Malvern have one loss apiece in the double-elimination tournament. DiGiandomenico and Vasys appeared to have avoided all fights, but were charged with fighting majors anyway. Also suspended from Carroll were forwards Frank Burdo, Eric Madigan, and Greg Halligan.
Suspended from Ryan (meaningless since Ryan was eliminated by last night’s loss) were Scott Smith, Kevin Harrington, Mike Croce, Chris Harrison, and Steve Phares. The fight began when Burdo was knocked down and his helmet came off. While Burdo was rolling on the ice, holding his face, several fights began. Officials Ron Meissner and Mike Condon had nearly restored order when Vetre ran across the ice. “I did that because Burdo was injured and still down and I wanted to see how badly he was hurt,” Vetre said later.
As Vetre got to the pile of players, he was intercepted by Condon, and fell to the ice. Ryan’s Harrison jumped the coach and pummelled him repeatedly until Condon dragged him away. Harrison kicked Condon as he was being dragged off. The game was not completed, as the final 26 seconds were forgotten in the aftermath of the brawl.

The fight obscured a great effort by Carroll goaltender Robbie Schnorr, who was pressed into service when regular goalie Guy Madigan did not return from a family vacation until late yesterday. Schnorr gave up only a final period goal to Ryan’s Joe Judge. Scott Chamness, Carroll’s scoring machine, had three goals, running his total for the three games of the tourney to 13. Greg Arnold, who returned from a vacation Monday and had not skated for 10 days, scored two goals. Their linemate, Jim Bolger, also scored two. Vetre and Chamness, the team captain, said they thought the team would not play tomorrow night. “With five kids suspended, I don’t see how we can,” Vetre said. “We only have two defensemen, and they’re both gone. We only had 11 skaters before last night. We’ll meet tonight to discuss it.” Scott lanelli scored four goals, including the game winner, to pace Malvern’s upset of Tennent in the night’s second game. Malvern was trailing 5-3 in the third period, but lanelli scored on a breakaway, Al Cobb tied it, 5-5, with a slap shot, and lanelli scored the winner with 5:38 left on a 10-footer from the slot.