Patriots Take Charge to Post 32-12 Win over Georgetown

The Revere High football team scored three unanswered touchdowns in the second half to turn a tight 13-12 contest at the intermission into a 32-12 romp over Georgetown Friday evening before a delighted home crowd under the lights at Harry Della Russo Stadium.

The RHS fans on hand had barely settled into their seats when Georgetown quickly put six points up on the board after recovering a Revere fumble on the opening kickoff and marching into the endzone in five plays.

However, the Patriots wasted no time in delivering an effective counterpunch, moving 60 yards on the ensuing possession, the capper being a 17 yard jaunt by Andy Restiano for six to even matters at 6-6.

A Patriot turnover (another fumble) on Revere’s next possession set the stage for Georgetown’s second touchdown drive of the opening period, with a 42 yard pass play accounting for the TD.

However, that would prove to be the high point of the contest for the visitors. The Patriots would settle down on both defense and offense the rest of the way. The second period saw Bobby Rose sprint 37 yards to paydirt on a beautifully-executed screen pass to give the Pats a 13-12 advantage (with Jeff Simbert splitting the uprights for the PAT) to take a lead they never would relinquish.

While most Revere fans no doubt were prepared for another see-saw battle in the remaining two periods as the teams came out of the locker room after the intermission, they could not have known that Patriot head coach Lou Cicatelli and his staff had revised their game plan for the second half.

“Georgetown really jammed us on the outside in the first half and did a nice job to take away our sweeps,”said Cicatelli. “So we adjusted our game plan to go off tackle and pull some inside traps.”

The results were dramatic, as the Patriot ground game soon made mince meat of the Georgetown defense. With quarterback Joe Ritchie handing off to his array of fine running backs, Restiano, Tom Portrait, and Conlen Adjindah, and also rushing for some serious yardage himself, the Pats ran the ball seemingly at will, eventually accumulating almost 300 yards on the ground.

Portrait reached the endzone twice in the third period on runs of three and 30 yards, and Ritchie applied the icing to the RHS victory cake with a 47 yard dash up the middle on a quarterback trap in the fourth frame.

“It was a totally different game in the second half,” noted Cicatelli. “My staff did a great job and the team executed the plays. It was a total team effort.”

The Revere defense also came up big after the intermission, shutting down a Georgetown offense that had racked up 41 points the week before en route to a 41-14 triumph over West Bridgewater. Adjindah played what Cicatelli called a “ferocious” game from his outside linebacker spot. Nose guard Connor McCarthy was a force in the middle and accounted for four sacks of the Georgetown quarterback. Kyle Gotham had a big game on defense and Marvin Rios turned in a strong, two-way effort on both the defensive and offensive lines.

“We’re coming together as a team,” said Cicatelli. “We improved on our performance from the first week and eliminated some of the sloppy play in that game. This week we’ll work on some other areas that need improvement, particularly our passing game.”

Long time Patriot fans may have recognized a familiar face on the Georgetown sidelines, former RHS head coach and teacher Mike Cella, who has taken on a post as an assistant coach with the Georgetown program.

“It was an emotional night for many of us,” noted Cicatelli, who played under Cella at RHS.

The Patriots, who now are 2-0 on the year, will travel up the Lynnway to Swampscott Saturday afternoon. Swampscott stands at 1-1 on the year, having edged Somerville 34-32 in the season opener, but falling to Winthrop last week, 21-10.  Kickoff time is 1:00 at Blocksidge Field.

Boys cross country team runs well in season opener

Although the Revere High cross country team dropped its season opening meet last week to Swampscott, RHS head coach Mike Flynn was delighted with his team’s performance.

“Every boy ran very well,” said Flynn of his squad, which was edged by a thin 26-29 margin by a Swampscott team that was second best in the Northeastern Conference last year. “All but one of our runners ran a personal record (PR) on our home course, and many by big margins.”

Leading the way for Revere was senior Kristi Nushi, who came home in third place in 16:36 over the 2.89 mile course, a whopping 50 seconds faster than his best time last year.

“Kristi attended camp in the summer and has really worked hard,” said Flynn. “He’s improved tremendously.”

Teammate Rawlings Toglon grabbed fifth spot in a PR of 17:26  and led a procession of teammates ahead of the next Swampscott runner. Karim Sahila was sixth in 17:31, John DelloRusso (who shaved 17 seconds off his previous best) was seventh in 17:54, and Mohamed Bensadok was eighth in 18:15 to complete the Revere score sheet.

William Truong came home in 11th position in 18:26; Derek Fortuna was 13th in 19:16; and Jay Mistri was 18th in 20:03. Other Patriot runners were Ricardo Maldonado in 20:05, Boun Che in 20:42, and Kane DiMasso-Scott in 20:48.

“Our performance against Swampscott bodes well for the rest of the season,” noted Flynn, whose squad’s next action is a tri-meet set for today (Wednesday) against Lynn English and Beverly on the Lynn Woods course.

Boys soccer ties Saugus, falls to Peabody in first week

With a half dozen of his players sidelined with injuries, Revere High boys soccer coach Nik Tower must feel as though he’s running an infirmary, rather than a soccer program.

But the show must go on, as the saying goes, and thus an undermanned RHS boys soccer team opened its season last week against Northeastern Conference rivals Saugus and Peabody.

The Patriots overcame a 1-0 disadvantage in the Saugus encounter to earn a 1-1 tie in the opener at Saugus. The Revere tally came on a beautiful header by junior newcomer Saad Elkhaim off a fine crossing pass from the corner by teammate Wilmer Cruz.

Peabody traditionally is one of the perennial powers in the Northeastern Conference and once again features a physically imposing team. However, the Patriots played the visiting Tanners evenly most of the way, with a penalty kick and a goal in the closing minutes accounting for most the 3-0 final score.

“Overall I was very pleased with the way we played against a Peabody team that is one of the tallest I’ve sever seen at the high school level,” said Tower. “We had a couple of bad breaks that went their way and the final score was not indicative of how close the game was.

“Hopefully we’ll get back some of our injured players this week and we will be able to earn some wins and points,” added the coach. “We are a team with many very good players, but no superstars, so we need to have everybody on hand and to play as a team.”

Tower and his crew have a busy week ahead. They were set to play last night (Tuesday) under the lights at Manning Field against Lynn Classical and will host Salem tomorrow on the turf behind the high school. They will travel to O’Bryant High Saturday and to Beverly Monday before returning home to entertain Lynn English next Wednesday, culminating a stretch of five games in nine days.

RHS golf team

defeats Salem, 38.5-33.5

The Revere High golf team won its first match of the season, defeating Salem 38.5-33.5.

Key performers for the Patriots were No. 7 and No. 8 players Brett Deukmejian and Jay Seigal, who defeated their Salem opponents 6-3 and 7-2 respectively.

“The big swing in points came from Brett and Jay, who gave us an advantage of eight points in the final match,” said RHS coach Matt Nazzaro.

Also turning in strong efforts were John Cimmarutta at No. 1, who lost by just one point, 4-5, to his Salem rival, who is one of the best golfers in the NEC, and Mark Maloney at No. 2, who defeated a strong Salem foe, 5.5-3.5.

“I can’t remember the last time Revere beat Salem in golf,” said Nazzaro. “We played well and everyone contributed. The whole team was excited.”

The Patriots took on Everett Monday and Beverly yesterday (Tuesday). They meet Winthrop today and Peabody tomorrow.”

Strong start for

RHS volleyball team

The Revere High volleyball team is off to a fine start, taking its first three games in its season-opening week.

The Lady Patriots defeated Medford 3-2, Saugus 3-1, and Lynn English 3-0.

“The girls have really stepped it up this year right from the beginning of the season,” said RHS head coach Kim Hudd.

Starting players for the 2012 squad are Helen Davis (middle hitter), Valentina Lopez (outside hitter), Hailey Lauria (setter), Anna Pham (outside hitter), Shannon Spillane (libero), Natalie Colon-Martins (middle hitter), and Katie Tuck, who plays the right front hitting position.

“The girls have really picked up their defensive and offensive game and are an enthusiastic group,” noted Hudd.

Colon-Martins has been leading the team with kills (spikes) at the net and blocking. Lopez has been leading the way in defensive digs and service points, while Lauria has been setting the pace in assists.

“I think we are going to have a great season,” added Hudd, whose squad travels to Lynn Classical tomorrow (Thursday) and will host Salem Monday and Saugus Wednesday. All matches start at 4:00.

Cross country girls

fall to Swampscott

Revere junior Nikki Nelson took the top spot overall among a huge field of runners in the season opening meet for the Revere High girls cross country team last week on their home course against Swampscott.

“Swampscott has nearly 60 girls on its team and our team is the largest it has been in a long time, so it made for a packed race,” said RHS head coach Katie Sinnott.

“For many girls on our team, this was their first high school race, so they definitely were nervous at the start, but finished the race with smiles,” added Sinnott.

Although the Lady Patriots came out on the short end of a 20-49 decision, Sinnott saw many pluses for her squad, who noted that freshmen Trisha Cheever and Jaclynne Dion both finished in the scoring positions for Revere. “These girls ran in the Revere Middle School program and their work last year is paying off this season,” said the coach. “Nikki Nelson is looking as strong as ever and senior Maggie DiPlatzi looked good after missing nearly a whole year of running due to injury.”

The Revere girls’ finishes and their times were as follows:

Nikki Nelson   first overall   20:41; Caitlyn Caramello   seventh overall   21:58; Trisha Cheever   12th overall   23:19; Alanna Pasco   13th overall   23:21; Maggie DiPlatzi   16th overall   23:52; Hayley Mangino   21st overall   24:41; Jaclynne Dion -  25th overall   24:58;

Jennifer Dandrow   37th overall   28:12; Ghizlane Benzerdjeb   45th overall   29:03; Monica Reyes   48th overall   29:40; Alessandra Sabella   53rd overall   31:07; Aouli Labeche   58th overall   32:52; Evelyn Bonilla   59th overall   33:31; Jessica Ventura   60th overall   33:43;

Rayana Benzahora   61st overall   33:46; Dakota DeLuca   63rd overall   36:10; Michelle Vargas   64th overall   36:11; Catherine Monroy   65th overall   37:37; Ashley Goodwin   66th overall   37:56; Francesca DeRosa   67th overall   37:57; and Meloee Nazaire   68th overall   37:57.

Sinnott and her crew will compete in a tri-meet today (Wednesday) vs. Lynn English and Beverly at Lynn Woods.