March 27, 1980
Archbishop Carroll High’s hockey team won the Flyers Cup last night.
FINALLY!
After three years of season-ending injuries, fights, suspensions, withdrawals and assorted problems, Carroll finally proved it is the best high school hockey team in the area.
With Scott (The Shot) Chamness scoring his fourth “hat trick” in the four-game series, Carroll defeated Malvern Prep, 6-2, before the largest crowd ever to play to see a high school hockey game in the Delaware Valley, 2,207, in the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Rink.
Chamness who had 13 goals in four games, won the Bobby Clarke Award as the Flyers Cup most valuable player. “The MVP doesn’t really mean that much,” said Chamness. “I couldn’t have won it without Jeff Arnold, or my brother (Phil) or Carmen DiGiandomenico.” It’s their award too.
“But The Cup… it feels great to win everything when you have to work for it. This wasn’t like last year, when we could take it easy and win. Last year’s team had more talent, but this year’s team really pulled together.”
It’s easy to regroup around a superstar like Chamness, who took all of the pressure off his young teammates by scoring a short-handed goal just four 4:59 into the game. Chamness poke-checked the puck off Mike O’Connor’s stick on a Malvern power play, went on a clear breakaway and scored easily.
“The guy’s fantastic,” said Carroll coach Dave Callaghan, who announced his retirement in the locker room, “He’s what you expect from a leader. He leads by example.”
Carroll widened the lead to 3-0 before the first period was over (it would mount to 5-0 in the second period), on the first of two goals by Arnold, an excellent freshman center, and a power-play goal by Chamness. “Tonight, we came out and scored three goals. That’s what our coach wanted.”
“I thought the penalties took away from the flow of the game,” said Callaghan, “but we got a break on that short-handed goal so early.”
Penalties killed Malvern later in the decisive first period, but Carroll was also short-handed three times in that period, and goalie Robbie Schnorr shut out Malvern. Chamness and Arnold scored again in the second period, and it looked like a route, before Malvern’s Chris Lerro scored the first of his two power-play goals to cut the lead. Carroll’s Mike Callow scored the final goal with just 1:30 to play.
“This means a lot, to show we can win it,” said DiGiandomenico, the stalwart defenseman. “We had a mental lapse about halfway through the season and lost a couple of games back to back. But the guys got back together and began patting each other on the back and coming around. They realized we weren’t gonna win just because it was Archbishop Carroll out on the ice. They realized w had to work.”
The work paid off.
| 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | FINAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MALVERN PREP | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| ARCHBISHOP CARROLL | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
First period – 1, Carroll, S. Chamness (unassisted), 4:58, 2, Carroll, Arnold (Schnorr, Madigan), 9:59, 3, Carroll, S. Chamness (Arnold, P. Chamness).
Second period – 4, Carroll, S. Chamness (Arnold, P. Chamness), 4:28, 5, Carroll, Arnold (Haegerie), 14:43, 6, Malvern, C. Lerro (Washco), 14:43.
Third period – 7, Malvern, C. Lerro (K. O’Connor, M. O’Connor), 8:46, 8, Carroll, Callow (Burdo), 13:30.
Goalies: Parvin, Malvern; Schnorr, Carroll. Referees: Barney Geisel, and Mike Condon, Attendance 2,207
CREDIT: The Philadelphia Inquirer
