At least a half-dozen players were within a stick’s length of the puck, and suddenly the game turned into a scrum.

Three Arlington Catholic forwards fought off punishing blows from defenders in front of the net, while spectators with a better view hollered and pointed at the black disc, still sitting on the fringe of the goal line.

Eventually, Brendon O’Connell, Arlington Catholic’s crafty junior center, located the puck and jammed it in for his second goal of the game. Minutes later, linemate Michael Snow made a diving stop in the neutral zone to regain possession, drove in on the left side, and faked his defender to the ice with a false-trigger slap shot. The speedy freshman then found the 5-foot-9, 150-pound O’Connell, who fired a quick wrister that was deflected wide. Fellow freshman Ryan Smith, however, was waiting on cue for the easy putaway.

“You don’t see many freshmen in that position,’’ said Chris Whitford, who coaches the freshmen and junior varsity teams at Arlington Catholic. “Ryan just finishes. He just finds that open area in the ice.’’

It was Smith’s third goal of the game, and the fifth created by his line. A hat flew onto the ice and Smith made a tip-of-the-cap gesture.

Then came the reaction from the Austin Prep side of the bleachers: Who are these kids?

A fair question.

Arlington Catholic had been struggling to find the back of the net against quality opponents. O’Connell was admittedly at the heart of the issue. Coach Dan Shine kept tossing different wingers on the flanks of the talented pivot, but there was no chemistry.

Finally, last Friday, the day before the Austin Prep game, Shine gave permanent jerseys to Smith and Snow, both freshmen who had started the year playing with their classmates. He told them they would be on the varsity squad the rest of the season.

“I think they’ve kind of jumped up ahead of the pack a little quicker than others,’’ Shine said of Snow and Smith, who, along with O’Connell, have accounted for 10 of the Cougars’ last 12 goals. “If you’re sitting on the bench and you’re watching them play, how could you think that they don’t belong there?”

Of course, after watching Smith’s vision and toughness, along with Snow’s hands and finishing ability, it became difficult not to wonder whether Shine had waited too long. Couldn’t the freshmen have helped the Cougars (7-3-3) turn an early season tie to Arlington or one-goal loss to Billerica into victories?

“Possibly,’’ Shine said. “We’re never going to know that. But I think by waiting as we have, and this is what we’ve done for many years, it pays dividends down the road for them.

“You have to look at the personal development and the fact that you’re putting them out there and taking upperclassmen out of the game - you have to wait for these types of things.’’

Austin Prep’s coach, Lou Finocchiaro, who has had a number of talented freshmen over the years, backed Shine’s thought process.

“With freshmen, you’re running the risk of hurting their confidence if they’re not successful right away,’’ he said. “Most of these kids have dominated every level they’ve played at, and it’s not easy to do that on varsity. It all comes down to mental toughness.’’

A resident of Medford, Snow spent the summer with other 14-year-olds at the US National Development Program in Rochester, N.Y. Surrounded by talented players from across the country, he was immediately forced to question his own ability.

And when Snow began the season at Arlington Catholic, Shine and Whitford told him, along with Smith and a few others, that he would be starting the year at the freshman level.

“You can get frustrated with that,’’ Whitford said. “You might ask yourself, ‘Why am I here? Why am I skating freshman or JV or whatever it might be when I should be on varsity?’ But these kids were committed.’’

Said Shine: “I told them, ‘When you’re the best every day on the freshman or JV teams, that’s when you’ll be ready to move up.’ And I think they bought it.’’

And any doubts were put to rest by their ability on the ice.

“At first I didn’t really like it,’’ said O’Connell. “You see two freshmen coming up - you don’t want anyone taking your spot. But they’re unbelievable. It was instant energy off the bench out of nowhere. They’re always flying around, making plays. There was instant chemistry and we’ve been racking up the points.’’

The praise was equally high for O’Connell.

“He’s shown us the ropes,’’ said the 5-9, 145-pound Snow, who scored the decisive goal in a 4-3 win over Archbishop Williams earlier this season. “He tells us what we have to do, what we need to improve on.’’

“We all just connect with our eyes,’’ added the 5-10, 150-pound Smith, an Arlington resident.

After the 6-4 win Saturday, Snow and Smith were all smiles, their full sets of braces shining right through. Asked whether they were the only two with a mouth full of metal, Shine turned and said, “They have braces? I only notice what they do on the ice. And they score goals.’’

Medfield hits snag after solid start

After starting the season undefeated through 11 games, Medfield finally lost, 8-4, to Shrewsbury, and then fell again a few days later, to Tri-Valley League rival Holliston, 3-1.

But coach Toby Carlow thinks it was just a bump in the road. “Our guys just got a little complacent,’’ he said. “It’s just a little minislump.’’

Junior Ben Cox (29 points) and senior John Buchanan (24 points) have been as good as expected, with senior Connor Roddy always sturdy in net. But the surprise has been sophomore Matt Crowell, who has collected 19 points since moving from forward to defense.

Jason Mastrodonato can be reached at jasonmastrodonato@ yahoo.com.