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DANVERS -- It's over.

St. John's Prep's opening-game postseason jinx -- and all the negativity that goes with it -- was wiped out here last night.

Led by sophomore point guard Brendon Felder, who took charge of the game when the Eagles had to have it down the stretch, St. John's Prep shaded Malden Catholic, 59-57, in a tense and electrifying Division 1 preliminary round game. The Prep now moves on to play No. 3 seed Everett (17-1) on the road tomorrow night.

The St. John's Prep basketball team couldn't be blamed for sleepwalking in the first quarter last night while playing its fourth game in six days.

"But we answered the ring of the bell," Prep coach Dan Letarte said after the Eagles overcame a 16-point deficit and took out Malden Catholic, 75-66, on the road. St. John's won all four games in the six-day span and is now 9-5.

Opposing schools wouldn't mind it if St. John's Prep moved out of the Catholic Conference for a while. The Eagles are just too tough to beat.

Making good use of its depth, St. John's Prep handled Malden Catholic, 54-18, to win its 10th straight Catholic Conference title. The Eagles have won 43 in a row in the conference and they're 21-5 overall this season.

The St. John's Prep hockey team got off to a very fast start last night | but in the end, that was evened out by an equally strong finish by Malden Catholic.

The end result was a hard-fought 3-3 tie between the two Catholic Conference rivals before a large crowd at the Ristuccia Memorial Arena.

The names change, but the script remains the same at the Blue Devil Classic, the traditional season-opening local wrestling tournament.

Once again, Concord, N.H., rolled to the team title yesterday, its sixth straight, while local teams Pinkerton, Central Catholic and Salem showed some superb individual talent and projected promise of better days ahead.

MALDEN | The Peabody High football team came into last night's first-ever "Thanksgiving Eve" showdown with Malden Catholic looking to erase a season of heartache.

It was clear after the opening drive | a 14-play, 65-yard Lancers' scoring march | that it wasn't meant to be.

The St. John's Prep football team didn't rely solely on its offense for scoring, but got its defense and special teams involved as well in a 35-6 victory over Malden Catholic yesterday afternoon.

The victory now sets up a battle for the Catholic Conference title this Saturday at Cronin Field, when the host Eagles (5-4 overall) take on unbeaten B.C. High (9-0) at 1:30 p.m. Both squads are 2-0 in league play.