BC High 28, CM 17

In the annual CM VS BC High Thanksgiving day game you could feel the tension in the air. CM came out emotionally charged and took a small lead into halftime, BC came out in the second half with no intention on conceding and that was evident when they outscored CM 14-0 in the second half to keep the Pumpkin Trophy in their possession.

Armani Reeves came out early and made a statement on a bone-crushing hit to force a fumble, which he also recovered. On CM’s first possession quarterback AJ Doyle hooked up with Donald Bland on a play action pass for a 20-yard gain. The Knights would get on the board first as Keshaudus Spence broke a 28 yard touchdown run on a well executed draw play. On the next BC High possession Cam Williams recovered a fumble on the Eagles’ one-yard line, an AJ Doyle run put CM ahead 14-0. The Eagles finally joined the party halfway through the second quarter when a 5-yard touchdown run put them down 14-6 after a failed two-point conversion. A costly pass interference call gave CM the ball on the Eagles’ 29-yard line, CM couldn’t force their way into the end zone and were forced to settle for a field goal. It looked as if the Knights were going to be able to enjoy a big halftime lead until the Eagles connected on a long touchdown pass to keep themselves in striking distance of the Knights. A successful two point conversion made the score CM 17- BC 14 heading into the break.

The Eagles came out and sent a message on their first drive in the second half when they immediately took the lead on a long touchdown pass. BC pulled away on a 58 yard run from Preston Cooper who then punched in a short touchdown run to put the Eagles up 28-17, which would hold up as the final score. CM still didn’t quit, Spence willed his way for a first down with about six minutes left in the game. The game wasn’t completely out of reach until miscommunication between Doyle and his receiver resulted in an ugly interception with just 3:46 left. The biggest reason why the Eagles were able to totally shut down the Knights’ offense was their relentless pressure on AJ Doyle. Play after play the Eagles busted through the Knights’ offensive line and put Doyle on his back.

It has been a long season for the Knights who have been plagued by injuries since day one. Right now the only good news is that the Knights have a long list of talented underclassmen including one captain from this year who will be returning next year.


Mike Slonina '11

Soccer wins State Championship

Congratulations to the CM soccer team, who won the MIAA Division I State Championship on Sunday afternoon with a 1-0 win over Western Mass champion Ludlow. In leading the Knights through an impeccable six-game postseason win-streak, Coach John Finn earned his first state championship in his fifth season as head coach.

A solid all-around team, the Knights let in only one goal during regulation in the entire tournament. They fought against elimination in five sudden-death overtime periods and one penalty-kick showdown.

The team earned a berth in the title game by defeating Weymouth, Greater New Bedford, King Philip Regional, Brockton, an undefeated North champion Lexington squad. They defeated Lexington on Thursday night for the EMass Championship, 2-1 (OT) at Weymouth H.S.

Henri Jean-Claude '12 scored for CM to tie it in the 2nd half, and senior co-captain Will Donovan '10 netted the sudden-death overtime goal to give CM the win. Nick Leney '10 assisted on the winning goal. Connor Askins '10 was once again solid in goal. In five postseason games, the Knights' opponents have scored only twice against them.

NHS welcomes its newest members

CM inducted its newest class of National Honor Society members on November 19 in the Ronald Perry Gymnasium. To help inspire the newest inductees, Peter Trovato '00, who earlier in the month earned the first Vince in Bono Malum Award for Outstanding Young Alumnus, gave the keynote address.

Trovato, founder of the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund, spoke of his years at CM a decade earlier, and of his most poignant memories as a student.

"Congratulations to the juniors being inducted here tonight. You should be proud," said Trovato. "It's an honor and achievement. However, I want to stress that too many times achievements...are simply used as filler for your college application or resume. I urge you tonight to challenge yourself more as a member of the NHS."

After hearing Andrew Fanikos '10, Gjergji Evangjeli '10, Dominic Montalbano '11 and Chris Stathopoulos '11 each lit a candle in the induction ceremony speak on the NHS pillars of scholarship, leadership, service and character, Trovato further reflected on these characteristics of the NHS member and on the motto of his school.

"'Conquer evil by doing good.' Tonight the service, character and leadership and academics all come together for you to promote causes here, for you to be leaders, and for you to not forget of other people and their sacrifice," he said.

CM President Paul Sheff gave the closing remarks. "Congratulations to our newest inductees into the National Honor Society. I know how hard you worked to earn this recognition. You should be proud of yourselves and I know your parents are proud as well," said Sheff.

Sheff offered one model of an ideal scholar in discussing the famed 16th century writer Erasmus. After becoming the first writer to translate the New Testament into Greek, Erasmus became controversial in his refusal to support either the Protestant or Catholic cause in the Reformation, earning the scorn of both.

"Be honest and humble in your intellectual exploits, and keep your eyes and hear open to the great big world that beckons you. You would do well to be a disciple of Erasmus," said Sheff.

Mr. Malionek, advisor to the NHS, announced the following inductees from the Class of 2011:

Nelson Alvarez
Nicholas Barker
Joseph Botsch
Patrick Carney
Ryan Curley
Christian Durham
John Federico
John Gaffney
Michael Gallagher
James Golding
John Gorman
Aram Gurekian
Francis Hawley
Marc Hetnik, Jr.
SeungJin Hong (Philip)
Brendan Hughes
SungHo Jun
Nicholas Leney
Ryan Malone
Dominic Montalbano
Christopher Moriarty
Christian Mowles
Daniel O’Hear
Gwontaek Rho
Ryan Shanahan
Brendan Shea
Nicholas Sitar
Ryan Skiba
Christopher Stathopoulos
Sean Sweeney
Elliot Simmons-Uvin
Michael Techiera
Stephen Twerago
Jake Uminski
Sean Vitello
Peter White

Soccer team wins Eastern Mass Championship

After a third consecutive overtime win in three postseason games, the CM Varsity Soccer team will vie for a Division I State title this Sunday. They earned a berth in the title game by defeating North champion Lexington for the EMass Championship on Thursday night, 2-1 (OT) at Weymouth H.S.

Henri Jean-Claude '12 scored for CM to tie it in the 2nd half, and senior co-captain Will Donovan '10 netted the sudden-death overtime goal to give CM the win.

The Knights will face West champ Ludlow on 11/22 at 1:30pm at Worcester State College for the Division I State title.

CM Life in Photos: Thanksgiving Food Drive

After the Mass of Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 19, members of the Peer Ministry program at CM, accompanied by Director of Campus Ministry Mr. Brian Scott (right) packed up over one ton (2,000 lbs.) of Thanksgiving food donated by the CM community. The food will go to 200 needy families in Boston through St. Patrick's Parish in Roxbury. Below, (l-r) Christian Mowles '11, Nolan Schmidlein '11 and Andrew Rogantino '12 load the food onto a CM bus for delivery.

South Sectional Champs!

The Soccer team is the MIAA Division 1 South Sectional Champion after defeating Brockton in the sectional finals Tuesday night. After two scoreless overtimes against #4-seeded Brockton, they won in a penalty-kick shootout. The Knights face North champ Lexington on Thursday night at 7pm at Weymouth H.S. for the Eastern Mass Championship title.

Click on the photo to see more pictures.

"This is a great win for them," said head coach John Finn '89. "For the seniors in particular, this win bookends their four years of varsity play with two South Sectional titles."

After battling through 80 minutes of regulation and two ten-minute overtimes, the soccer team captured the championship with a dramatic 4-3 penalty kick shootout Tuesday night. The game ended in a 0-0 stalemate before the shootout was needed to determine the champion.

Goalkeeper Connor Askins '10 made two crucial saves in the shootout and scored the game-winning penalty kick goal himself. In additions to Askins's goal, Hamadi Cantave '10, Will Donovan '10 and Stephen Twerago '11 routinely converted their spot kicks for the Knights.

CM didn't need a fifth kick, as Askins kept out Brockton's last effort to set off the championship celebration.

The win marks CM's second Division I South Championship in four seasons, having previously captured the prestigious title in 2006.

The seventh-seeded Knights improved to 16-3-3 on the season and advance to the EMass championship game against Lexington with a berth in the Division I state championship game at stake.

CM Soccer v. King Philip, S. Sectional semis

Click here to see more photos from CM v. King Philip soccer in the S. Sectional semifinals, at Veterans Stadium, Quincy, Nov. 15, 2009.

CM Falls Just Short of Monumental Upset, 30-28

On Sunday the Catholic Memorial Knights marched into Xaverian Brothers High School ready to give the number one ranked team in the state their first loss of the season. The Knights stayed in the game throughout but fell just short in the end losing 30-28.

Xaverian got on the board first with a one-yard touchdown run about halfway through the first quarter. On the next drive, once CM was finally forced to punt the kick was returned for a touchdown. The Knights, now down 14-0 knew that Xaverian's momentum needed to be stopped immediately or they were going to be looking at a blowout. Apparently Sophomore Armani Reeves knew this because he returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown. Joey McCarthy fumbled the snap on the extra point but he made up for it by running into the end zone, which put the Knights down only 14-8. After their returned kickoff the Knights defense stepped up with solid tackling as well as a fumble which was caused by Lorenzo Warren hitting the Xaverian quarterback from his blind side. The game score would stay at 14-8 heading into halftime.

In the second half no impact plays were made until Warren recovered a fumbled snap to give the Knights the ball in excellent field position with 6:09 left in the third quarter. Keshaudus Spence then broke free for a 25 yard touchdown run to put the Knights in position to take the lead, however a blocked punt kept the game tied at 14. The Hawks broke the tie on the first play of the fourth quarter with a touchdown run. Knights' quarterback AJ Doyle then threw a costly interception deep in CM territory which would have buried the Knights if not for excellent defense to force the Hawks to kick a field goal. Xaverian helped the Knights' cause when their kickoff went out of bounds, which gave the Knights the ball on their 40-yard line. The play of the game was a reverse to Joey McCarthy who, after looking to pass downfield, maneuvered his was for a 35-yard gain. The Hawks would once again hurt themselves with a costly pass interference penalty, which gave CM the ball on the 9-yard line. Lorenzo Warren kept CM in the game when he muscled his way for a touchdown to put CM within three, down 24-21. Much to the disappointment of the Knights' bench, the Hawks connected on a huge pass play to put themselves on the CM's 9-yard line and in excellent position to make it a two-possession game. Xaverian scored their final touchdown of the afternoon with 3:17 left, a blocked extra point made the score 30-21. The Knights marched all the way from the 8 yard line into the end zone but time was not on their side, Doyle finally hit McCarthy in the end zone with only :04 remaining.

With their performance in this game the Knights have nothing to hang their heads about, they gave the number one ranked team in the state the biggest scare they've seen this season. Still, that doesn't mean that it hurts any less. The Knights gave everything they had and if a few things went differently then who knows, maybe they pull it out.

CM's final game of the season is their annual Thanksgiving day game against BC High. Every year the Pumpkin Trophy is put on the line in this age old Catholic Conference rivalry. The Knights' final mission of the season is to bring the trophy back to Baker Street for the first time in four years.

Mike Slonina '11

CM Soccer heads to South Semis

The CM Varsity Soccer team will face King Philip Regional High School in the Division I South Sectional semifinals on Saturday evening at 7pm at Weymouth High School.

The Knights earned the semifinal berth after handily defeating #2-seed Greater New Bedford on the road on Wednesday afternoon. In that matchup, Ryland Foster-Gorbach ’11 opened the scoring for the Knights, while Nick Leney ’11 and Kevin Butler ’10 rounded out the scoring in the second half. Will Donovan ’10 assisted on all three goals.

After Wednesday's quarterfinal matchup, head coach John Finn encouraged the team. "Continue the way you're playing hard ball and playing your game," he said.

As for upsetting Greater New Bedford, Coach Finn never took a chance in getting optimistic about being up 1-0 or 2-0.

"We just capitalized on opportunities when they missed," he said. "They definitely had two or three good opportunities in the first half, and when they missed, we got our chances and scored on them. Once we got that second goal, I knew it would change the tempo of the game, and it did."

Finn has been happy with the depth of his team as they head into the postseason against other tournament-ready teams. "This showed that we can play well on the road. And [senior captain] Will Donovan assisted on all three goals, but it showed that we don't have to have him scoring to win a game."

The Knights last made it to the semifinals in 2006, when they went on to the Eastern Mass finals.

CM Life in Photos: Soccer v. Weymouth

Photos from the CM/Weymouth soccer matchup in the first round of the Division I South playoffs, Sunday, November 8. Top to bottom: Will Donovan '10 tests Weymouth's defensive skills (courtesy Mike Gallagher '11); Donovan scores the first goal; celebrations after Donovan's goal; Sean Steinberg '10 celebrates his goal with teammates.

CM gets season back on track with 21-6 win over Plymouth South Panthers

The CM Knights traveled down to Plymouth South High School where they would try to get their season back on track against the Panthers. After a somewhat lackluster 3 quarters the Knights finally broke it open in the fourth, scoring 15 points and securing the win.

1st Quarter
The Panthers started the first half on an 8 minute drive which consisted of all run plays out of the exact same formation. They brought the ball all the way down to the 10 yard line where the Knights stopped the drive by stuffing a run up the middle. The only offensive highlight from the Knights in the first quarter was a 15 yard pass from AJ Doyle to Joey McCarthy across the middle of the field.

2nd Quarter
The Knights started their touchdown drive in the second quarter on a play action, Doyle rolled out as far as he could go and found Donald Bland who turned the 8 yard pass into a 20 yard gain. Next, the Knights ran a reverse from Armani Reeves to Joey McCarthy who ran for 13 yards. Doyle would then hook up with McCarthy on an 11 yard touchdown pass, after an unsuccessful extra point attempt CM lead the way 6-0. After another heavy diet of run plays from the Panthers, CM turned them over on downs to end the half.

3rd Quarter
The third quarter was for the most part uneventful. CM ran another reverse, this time to Reeves who ran for a 10 yard gain. The Knights drove the ball into field goal position but kicker Tom Byrnes didn’t have a chance as the Panthers penetrated the line to disrupt the play. All Byrnes could do was try to draw a penalty but there was not enough contact to justify it. CM got the ball back with 2:30 left in the quarter when Shane Smith jumped on a fumble, the first big mistake of the Panthers’ offense all night.

4th Quarter
After relinquishing the ball back to the Panthers this game looked like it could go down to the wire. In a sense the Panthers killed themselves in this game. Once again they turned the ball over when a botched pitch to the running back was recovered by the Knights on their own 12 yard line. This is where the Knights’ started to put the game away. When Doyle dropped back and realized that he had no receivers down field he tucked it and ran, after getting a couple of blocks he ran for 26 yards. Running Back Lorenzo Warren then broke free from a few tackles ran for a a 51 yard touchdown with 4:57 left in the game. A successful two point conversion put the Knights up 14-0 and in great position to get the win. However the game was not yet secured to the point where they could relax. On the Panthers’ first pass attempt of the game Paul Fahey stripped the Quarterback to force a fumble and give the Knights the ball back. A few plays later Warren forced his way into the end zone once again with 3:11 left to put the game away. The Panthers finally got on the scoreboard with :04 seconds left in the game and missed the extra point.

This was a great win for the Knights. All season in close games they have made big plays in the fourth quarter and this game was no exception. Great plays were made on both sides of the ball in the closing minutes of the game as the Knights improved to 5-3 on the season. Next Saturday they will travel to Xaverian and try to derail the number 1 ranked team in Massachusetts.

Mike Slonina '11

CM Life in Photos: NHS Clothing Drive

Above, Dennis Weir '10 and Jon Lott '10 load bags of clothing donated through the National Honor Society's annual Clothing Drive before they get delivered to St. Francis House in Boston. The NHS collected 90 bags of clothing in total in the last week of October.

CM Forensics on top again as season begins

Both the high school and middle school forensics teams are off and running this fall already, with students in grades seven through twelve earning high praise across the state.

At the Dighton-Rehoboth High School “Fall Fest” Forensics Tournament on October 24, the team earned a 3rd place team trophy. Sixteen Catholic Memorial students broke into the final rounds to win individual awards, including Kevin Donnelly '12 (1st), Andrew Rogantino '12 (3rd), Marcus Jackson '12 (4th), Jhovani Vonleh '12 (6th) in Declamation; John Federico '11 (1st), John Clarke '13 (2nd), Anthony Sears '13 (4th) in Radio Broadcasting; Andrew Rogantino & Kevin Donnelly (1st) David Consigli '12 & Myles McCarthy '12 (3rd) in Team Improv; Laroy Streat '11 (1st), Frank Theodat '11 (4th) in Novice Reading; Chris Masterson '10 (3rd) in Original Oratory; Aram Gurekian '11 & Raffi Grigorian '12 (4th), and Josh Hillard '11 & Brian Ziniti '11 (5th) in Duo Interpretation.

Coach Rob Croteau was proud of the Forensics team after the meet. “This was a great team effort at the beginning of our season,” Croteau said. “It was the type of performance that we needed to energize our team as we continue to shape and polish our pieces.”

At the Nashoba Brooks School tournament on the same day, the Middle School Program's speech team competed, with three students gaining recognition: Andrew Kerwin '14 (6th) in Declamation, and Brendan Fitzpatrick '14 and Dan Shulman '14 (honorable mention) in Novice Reading.

Sophomore Service Day helps 800 families in need

In the last week of October, over a hundred and fifty CM sophomores devoted hundreds of collective hours of service to help Quincy's Cradles to Crayons and The Greater Boston Food Bank. The day of service, an alternative retreat designed by the Campus Ministry program at CM, made it possible for over 800 individuals in need to receive clothing and food as winter approaches.

"We chose to serve at Cradles to Crayons, where a lot of our seniors work for their Senior Service Project each year," said Mr. Brian Scott, director of Religious Education and Theology Chair at CM. "Both Cradles to Crayons and the Greater Boston Food Bank work behind the scenes, day and night, to provide for so many families in need."

Making their way through the Cradles to Crayons warehouse last Wednesday, Jon Doris '10 and Sean Myers '10 loaded a grocery cart full of supplies. Nearby, Errol Hudson '12 checked items off a list. "We're picking out clothes and food for children that need it," he said. "Then we deliver it to the check out counter."

At the checkout counter, other volunteers sealed the bags together, and another group of students heaved bags down a ramp to the delivery truck.

On two other days that week, students did the same thing, slowly assembling materials that would make life at least a little bit easier for children with needs greater than themselves.

Over at the Boston Food Bank in the South End, students worked in groups as well, sorting thousands of pounds of food donations and assembling meals for families. In all, the forty-five CM students sorted 7,431 pounds of food (or 132 pounds per student). In doing so, each one of them made 102 more meals possible for the homeless or for families living below the poverty line in Boston.

Joe Harney '10 Wins State Championship

Joe Harney '10 knew he'd probably have to take some chances heading into the last nine holes of his high school career yesterday at Blackstone National Golf Club in Sutton.

Down by two strokes, Harney remembered what his coach, John Palermo '79, had told him the day before. "These guys you're going up against are always going to shoot a 75 [on the coure]. You've got to take a chance and get an 80 or take a chance and win it."

Harney did just that, hitting agressively, catching a little luck here and there, and making four birdies overall on the day to earn a 72 and take home the Division II State Championship. Harney's score beat the three second-place finishers by two strokes.

In his four seasons for the Knights, Harney has consistently been a contender in the Conference, according to Coach Palermo. As captain this year, he has been an outstanding leader for the team's younger, talented players.

"This was an outstanding effort for Joe, that caps off four great years of play," said Palermo.

Harney also captured the Catholic Conference Championship on October 17 at Indian Ridge Country Club in Andover. Harney shot a league-low 77 on the 72-par course.