1980 Cobb’s ‘hat trick’ paces Malvern past Carroll, 6-5, in Flyers Cup

Malvern Prep opened last night’s Flyers Cup final round like an Afghan sniper dropping Russian soldiers. “We made five of our first eight shots,” noted coach Ray Bowman, scanning the stat sheet. “The Flyers should be so lucky.”
Malvern got three goals from Alan Cobb, a converted defenseman, and was blowing Archbishop Carroll out of the rink, 5-1, after two periods. “Alan can thread a needle from 90. feet,” said Bowman. “But they weren’t flukey goals… that was good honest effort that resulted in goals.” But Malvern had trouble protecting the lead in the final period and barely survived, 6-5, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three final which con- tinues Monday night in the Penn Class of 1923 Rink. “How do you protect a 5-1 lead?” queried Bowman. “You get a 6-1 lead, then a 7-1 lead. You don’t sit back and say to a team like Carroll ‘come to us.’ You’ve got to take the play to them.” Malvern didn’t do that often enough, and Carroll, carried by Scott Chamness’ third-period hat trick, nearly evened the score. For a startling instant with just 47 seconds left in the game and Malvern attempting to kill a penalty, Carroll thought it had evened the score. With Malvern’s top defenseman. Steve DiBacco, off for crosschecking. Scott Chamness fired one of his anvil-heavy shots on Malvern goaltender Chris DeRuschi. The puck rolled free and Carroll’s Phil Chamness stabbed it into the goal mouth The goal light went on, but referee Paul Saylor already was waving his arms signaling ‘no goal.” “I was behind the net, looking down into the net,” Saylor said. “Carroll was arguing that he (goal judge Anthony Tomasco) put on the light, but that doesn’t matter…. It’s my call.

“We’re not used to having goal judges in high school hockey and we automatically get in position to watch the net. The puck came to rest right on the line. It was quivering there as he (DeRuschi) brought his glove down on it. Remember, the rule states the puck must be completely over the line.”
That call, and the frustrations built up in this increasingly bitter rivalry, led to some pushing and shoving at the end of the game, but no real trouble.
“After we got that lead we became complacent,” said Malvern’s Al Washco. “We were too self-satisfied when it was 5-1. The last time we played ’em (as Carroll swept the Inter-County League final series, 2-0), we had two mental lapses and that cost us the game.” The Friars survived Carroll’s furious rally only because freshman Tom Gibson scored with 7 minutes, 51 seconds to play, breaking Carroll’s hold on the final period and restoring Malvern’s lead to 6-4. Scott Chamness (who has seven goals in two games in this tournament) had scored a short-handed goal and a power-play goal already in the period and would score an unassisted goal later to make it 6-5. Carroll defenseman Carmen DiGiandomenico, who had scored the Patriots’ fourth goal on a slapshot to make the score 5-4 less than two minutes earlier, cleared a puck from in front of goaltender Joe Hayden. The puck rolled to the blue line and Gibson pounced on it, rifling the shot over Hayden’s right shoulder.