Cementing His Legacy: Revere’s Tyler Scearbo Leads St. John’s Prep Hockey Team to Super 8 Title

When the 2014-15 St. John’s Prep (Danvers) ice hockey team’s state championship season is written in to the history books, Revere’s Tyler Scearbo will be featured prominently from its hopeful start to its glorious finish.

Prep hockey fans, parents, head coach Kris Hanson and staff, students and Tyler Scearbo himself – a senior captain – will forever remember the magical ride it was, culminating in two breathtaking games in the Super 8 Tournament.

In the semifinals at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, the Eagles skated to a 4-3 overtime victory against an undefeated, No. 1-ranked Springfield Cathedral team that has seven Division 1 college-bound players on its roster.

“We knew going into the game that it was going to be tough, but I just tried to get everyone calm,” said the 18-year-old Scearbo, who scored a shorthanded goal in the game. “I told my teammates that we were here for a reason and even though they were averaging about nine goals a game, we knew if we worked hard, we would have a chance to win.”

If toppling a 22-win team weren’t a challenge enough, the Eagles then faced the daunting task of trying to dethrone four-time defending champion Malden Catholic in the Super 8 title game at the TD Garden.

A highly skilled  5-foot-10-inch, 200-pound right winger on the first line, Scearbo helped engineer the Eagles’ 2-1 victory over Malden Catholic, saving one of his best performances for the final game of his three-year varsity career, assisting on both Prep goals.

Skating at the TD Garden for the first time, the Eagles were relentless from the opening faceoff.

“I just told the team to treat this like our other playoff games and anything can happen,” said Scearbo.

With many of his former Revere youth hockey teammates watching from the Garden seats, Scearbo was as clutch as can be for the Eagles.

After using his finesse and grittiness to gain control of the puck in the corner, he directed the puck to linemate Teddy McNamara, who finished off the feed for a 1-0 lead. Scearbo later made a huge defensive play with the Eagles in a shorthanded situation, poking the puck loose before delivering the puck to junior defenseman Brian Groom whose shot dented the MC net for a 2-0 lead.

Prep goaltender Kyle Martin, who was immense in the tournament, yielded a goal with 50 seconds left but the Eagles held on for the history-making win, the school’s first state hockey title in 30 years.

Scearbo and the other captains accepted the Super 8 championship trophy as the Prep fans cheered wildly. It was at that moment that Scearbo knew the moment was real and forever.

“It was everything you dreamed for,” said Scearbo. “In eighth grade when I was at the Garden watching St. John’s play MC in the finals (St. John’s lost in overtime), I said too myself, ‘Wow I want to be here someday as a player.’’’

Scearbo attended Lincoln School and Rumney Marsh Academy. He considered MC, St. John’s and Revere High before opting to head north to the Danvers college preparatory school. In addition to his stellar hockey career at the Prep, he has excelled academically, earning admission to the National Honor Society.

He played in the Medford Youth Hockey and Everett/Revere Youth Hockey programs and in St. Mary’s and Revere Babe youth baseball and has maintained those friendships. He also played for the Eastern Mass. Senators and the North Shore Wings regional teams.

“It was great to see so many of my friends and former teammates from Revere, even from other sports, at the Garden,” said Scearbo. “I talked to them before the game and I thanked them for coming to support me.”

St. John’s Prep coach Kris Hanson, a former Eagles standout (Class of 1994) who played college hockey at UNH, said Scearbo became a varsity player as a sophomore and improved his skills each year.

“Tyler developed each year and he certainly saved his best for his last year – he was great both on and off the ice,” said Hanson. “We were a young team. Tyler and the two other captains (Teddy McNamara of Marblehead and Nick Latham of Salem) are the only seniors who played varsity last year as juniors. We were 10-10 last year and nobody picked us to do anything this year. Tyler did a really great job of getting these young kids to believe that we’re a Super 8 team.”

Picked to finish last in the powerful Catholic Conference, St. John’s finished third in the regular season with a 14-5-1 record. “Right from Day 1, Tyler and the other seniors believed that this team could accomplish something. It started at the top with the captains. They set a good example for the younger guys.”

Hanson was not surprised that Scearbo rose to the occasion on the biggest stage in high school hockey.

“Tyler made two really nice plays individually [versus] MC,” said Hanson. “On the goal by McNamara, Tyler collected the puck and he knew where Teddy was going to be because they played together the entire season and he sent over a pass backdoor. On the shorthanded goal, Tyler aggressively forechecked Malden Catholic and sent a nice pass to Brian Groom who one-timed it for a 2-0 lead. I felt that was the biggest goal of the game.”

Scearbo, a Catholic Conference All-Star, and his teammates will be honored at the Prep’s state championship banquet.

“We’ll be presenting each player a state championship ring and a state championship jacket,” said Hanson. “I think it’ll be emotional when I introduce Tyler at the banquet. But I’ve already told Tyler that I couldn’t be more proud of him, how far he has come both as a player and a leader. He was the glue that kept this team together all season. It’s been 30 years since the Prep has won a state hockey title and Tyler and this team have cemented themselves in St. John’s Prep hockey history.”

IC JV Basketball champions

Revere Immaculate Conception 7th grade boys travel basketball team captured the Eastern Basketball League Championship B Division. Shown front row: Chris Bundick,Derek Avery, Matt Stuart, Matthew Gallegos.

Shown second row: Coach Rick Hayes, Scott Toglan, Justin Gullage, E.J. Leone, Josh Laurina, Michael Hayes, Robert Raduazzo, Jonathan Murphy, Milton Reyes, and Head Coach Ken Bennett.

RHS Sports Roundup

RHS baseball, softball teamsmaking the best of “spring” training

The calendar may say that spring officially was sprung by Mother Nature last Friday, but her landscape of snow and ice, leftovers from Old Man Winter that have been aided and abetted by the unseasonably cold temperatures, suggests otherwise, at last as far as the Revere High softball and baseball teams are concerned.

“This is by far the most challenging weather conditions I’ve experienced in my 20 years of coaching,” said RHS head softball coach Joe Ciccarello. “This is beyond anything we’ve ever seen in this area.”

With the MIAA changing the season-ending date from May 25 to May 31 for schools to complete their schedules before the start of the state tourney, the Lady Patriots have moved the start of their season from April 4 to April 13, when they will travel to Lynn Classical.

“The field at St. Mary’s parish (where the RHS girls once again will play their home games while the city’s new softball complex is being constructed) is still covered in snow, as is every other natural grass field in the area,” said Cicarello. “Hopefully, another two weeks will be enough time to melt the snow and get the fields into playable condition.”

The Lady Patriots met St. Mary’s of Lynn in a three-inning, pre-season contest at the indoor Rt. 1 Sportsplex facility in Danvers last week and are scheduled to meet Melrose on their turf field this Saturday for some more pre-season scrimmaging.

The 2015 Lady Patriots will be led by a trio of returning seniors, pitcher Sabrina Palermo, shortstop Kristina Stella, and center fielder Victoria Russo.

Palermo is one of the top pitchers in the state who catapulted the Lady Patriots to an epic 2014 season in which the Revere girls won the Northeastern Conference North Division title with a 15-5 mark and the Division 1 North Sectional title with a five-game tourney run before falling to the South Sectional champ, Bridgewater-Raynham (which went on to the win the state title) in the state semifinals.

Stella is a four-year starter who played at second base as a freshman, at third base as a sophomore, and at shortstop last year. Russo is moving from her left field spot last year to the all-important centerfield position.

Two other returning starters from the championship team are junior catcher Julianna Cecere and junior third baseman Ally Hinojosa. That leaves the entire right side of the field, plus left field, up for grabs among a bevy of Lady Patriot hopefuls.

“We may have had a great year in 2014, but we start this season at 0-0,” said Ciccarello. “We know everyone will be gunning for us, and we’ll have to be ready for 20 competitive games.”

On the baseball side, coach Shawn Brinkley’s crew has been limited in what they’ve been able to do, particularly because the Merullo field house does not have a batting cage enclosure.

Still, Brinkley has liked what he’s seen thus far. “The team has been impressive in our tryouts,” he said. “It’s apparent that a lot of the boys have worked hard in the off-season and have improved their game.”

The 2015 Patriots will be led by two senior captains, pitcher Noah Jaynes and second baseman Jake D’Angelo, and a junior captain, center fielder Dan Murphy.

Jaynes is one of the top pitchers in the Northeastern Conference who worked in the off-season to up his game. D’Angelo is a four-year starter at second and the fleet-footed Murphy, the starting quarterback for the RHS football team and a 55 meter indoor dashman, will be counted upon to cover a lot of ground patrolling centerfield.

James Furlong saw a lot of action at third base last year. Max Anderson is another returnee who played a key utility role. Junior Oscar Zevala figures to be the number two pitcher in the rotation behind Jaynes.

Brinkley and his crew are hoping to start their season April 4 when they host Everett at Conigliaro Field. “One thing we have in our favor is that Conigliaro Field has excellent drainage,” said Brinkley. “With a little bit of luck we might be able to open the season on time.”

The Patriots are scheduled to play in a jamboree this Sunday at Malden Catholic.

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