RHS Sports Roundup

Girls rebound to beat Peabody

The Revere High girls basketball team split its two games this past week, falling to Beverly, 51-39, Friday evening, but then bouncing back to defeat Peabody, 54-43.

The Lady Patriots endured what head coach Katelyn Leonard termed “a rough game from start to finish” against Beverly.

” We shot poorly from the floor and the free throw line, converting on only seven free throws out of 21 for the game,” said Leonard. “We also caught an 0-6 Beverly team desperate for a win. They couldn’t miss from outside or at the free throw line (they shot 19/23).”

Still, despite the Lady Patriots’ slow start, the teams were tied at the half. But with the Revere free throw shooting way off target, Beverly was able to pull out the victory.

“Our team always talks about winning games at the line,” noted Leonard. “Your defense can be sluggish, and your offense can be stalled, but you can still win games at the line.”

Gena Restiano led the Lady Pats with 18 points. Other Revere girls who got into the scoring column were Jacqui Noel with four points, Caitlin Caramello with five points (and a huge night under the boards with 14 rebounds), Jen Fajardo with four, Amy Rotger with one, Tiphani Harris with four, and Danielle Smith with two.

However, Monday night saw the Lady Patriots shake off the doldrums from the Beverly tilt and earn a well-played  54-43 triumph against Peabody.

“We talked after the Beverly loss about failure,” said Leonard. “We read a quote that says, ‘Failure isn’t falling down, it’s refusing to get up’. That was our motto going into the Peabody game, and we came out on fire.”

The Revere full court press swarmed Peabody and caused the Lady Tanners a lot of difficulty in getting the ball over half court. Conversely, the Revere offense broke the Beverly press very well, which caused the Lady Tanners to take it off halfway through the first quarter.

The Lady Pats drained eight three-pointers in the first half, by far their best shooting half of the season. Revere moved the ball on offense and received contributions from many players.

Although Revere didn’t shoot the ball as well after the intermission, their tough defense maintained their lead. The Lady Patriots also were able to control the boards despite a very tall Peabody team.

Peabody started to make a run in the fourth period, but this time Revere converted most of its free throws and were able to hold off a Peabody squad that entered the game with a 6-1 record.

“This was a great league win for us,” said Leonard. “We had great contributions from everyone on the team. At this point in the season, we are taking it one quarter at a time, focusing on winning each quarter. I’m proud of the way the team responded from Friday night’s loss.”

Restiano topped the scoring chart with 20 points and dished out five assists. Noel turned in a fine performance with nine points on a trio of treys in the first quarter. Caramello hit for 13 points, while also reaching a double-double with 12 rebounds and contributing four steals. Fajardo added two points, Rotger had three, and Tiphani Harris chipped in with four points.

Ivonne Zapata, making her varsity debut, contributed three points.

Leonard and her crew will host Gloucester tonight (Wednesday) and Swampscott Friday. They will travel to Winthrop next Tuesday.

RHS girls track team tops Classical

The Revere High girls indoor track team put forth some outstanding individual performances to earn a well-deserved 49-32 win over Lynn Classical.

The Lady Patriots captured six of the nine individual events (the teams did not run a relay, the final event of the meet, because Revere already had wrapped up the victory) and grabbed second place in four of  them.

“Before the meet I stressed to the girls that this was one of those meets where times really don’t matter,” said RHS head coach Sam Ros. “Placing was key for the win.  They were competitive all meet long and I am very proud of them for their performances.”

Nikki Nelson continued her dominance over her Northeastern Conference opponents in the mile with a first place clocking of 6:03, fully 47 seconds faster than her Lynn Classical rival. “Nikki Nelson continues to be our best distance runner.  She won the mile and made it look easy,” said Ros.

Comfort Toglan came through with a big win in the 300 meter dash in a time of 46.9 against two Classical foes who challenged Comfort for the top spot.

“The performance of the night came from Comfort Toglan,” noted Ros. “The 300 was a make or break event.  Classical’s top two runners have run just as fast or faster than Comfort this season.  As a bad case scenario, I had them taking first and second putting us seven points in the hole.  Comfort had other plans though.  When the race started, Comfort went out faster than I’ve seen her all season.  Yet, she was just a step behind first after the break.  She didn’t panic.  This was also the smartest race I’ve seen by Comfort.  She tucked in behind the Classical runner and bided her time.  Coming around the final turn, she made one final push and was able to win by a lean at the finish. So instead of being seven points down, she gave us an eight point swing and had us up by one point in the meet.”

The other first place finishers for Revere were Janice DeStefano in the shotput with a toss of 28-7, Alanna Pasco in the 600 in 2:04.2; Danielle Fortuna in the 1000 in 3:46.3; and Hayley Mangino with a two mile run of 14:48.

“Junior rookie Janice DeStefano leads our shot out crew,” said Ros. “She has been a pleasant surprise since joining the team this season.  She has a lot of potential in the event and could be one of the better throwers in the conference.  Janice qualified for states in only her first track event ever against Gloucester a few weeks ago.

“Alanna Pasco took the lead right from the start with the Classical girl hanging right behind.  Alanna was able to pull away in the last lap to win by one second,” said Ros. “Danielle Fortuna started the 1000 with the lead and stayed there all the way to the finish line.”

Second place efforts for the Lady Patriots, which added three points to the RHS scoresheet, were turned in by: Noelle Galli with a shotput throw of 25-10; Lindsay Gurska in the 50 yard hurdles in 8.3; Raychel Adreani in the 50 yard dash in 6.7; and Maggie DiPlatzi in the two mile in 15:16.

Important third place finishes, which contributed single points to the Revere cause to seal the victory, came from six Lady Patriots: DiPlatzi with a high jump of 4-2; Noelle MacDonald in the hurdles in 8.4; Angeli Buenaventura in the dash in 6.7; Fiona Kerthi in the 600 in 2:07.8; Cristina Martinez in the 1000 in 3:51; and Stheffane Souza in the mile in 7:04.1.

“It was a very close and exciting meet on the girls’ side,” said Ros, summing up the meet. “Going into the meet we knew that it would be one of those meets that could go either way.  We also knew that if we did not win before the relay, then there was a high possibility that we would lose the meet in the relay.  Classical’s relay team is very good and it would have been tough.

“Out of 10 events, five of them could have gone either way, for us or Classical.  The hurdles started the meet off with a tight win for Classical.  Lindsay Gurska continues to be my top hurdler and barely lost by a lean at the line,” Ros continued.

“Raychel Adreani and Angeli Buenaventura also just lost the 50 yards by a lean at the line.  Both ran their best times for the season so far. We almost had a little breathing room with Cristina Martinez just a step away from second place in the 1000, but was edged out at the finish. Maggie DiPlatzi is just rounding into form in the high jump, tying for second and just missing first by three inches.

“Even with all the great efforts by our girls, the meet came down to the final single event, the two mile,” noted the coach. “The score was 41-32 with us leading.  We needed at least a second place in the two mile to secure the win before the relay.  Good thing for us Hayley Mangino and Maggie DiPlatzi stepped up to the challenge, finishing 1-2, more than enough for the win.

“There will be two more meets this season for us that will be very similar to this one, Salem and Saugus.  Wins against them would give us a winning season for the first time in the last few years, since we had the team of the Houghs and Jessica Simpson.

“Next up is Beverly this Tuesday at Beverly.  Beverly always is a tough team whom we will use to try to run fast times,” Ros concluded

Boys track team cruises past Classical

The Revere High boys track team turned in a dominating performance to come away with a 73-13 victory over Lynn Classical last week, winning first place in all nine of the individual events.

Tarik Maddrey was a top scorer for the Patriots, earning a total of eight points. Tarik captured the high jump with an outstanding leap of 6-4 for five points and grabbed second in the 50 yard hurdles in 7.7 for three points. Maddrey’s clearance of the bar at 6-4 brings him into the elite realm of notable RHS high jumpers such as Kerry Leppo and John Burke. Burke holds the RHS indoor record of 6-6.5 set in 1998, while Leppo holds the outdoor record of 6-6 which he set in 1973.

Karim Sahila also was an eight point man on the day, trading places with Maddrey in the high jump and hurdles. Karim took first place in the former in 6.9 and second in the HJ with a leap of 5-4.

The Patriots swept five events, the 300, 600, 1000, mile, and two mile. First place finishers for Revere in those contests were: Robert Rose in the 300 in 39.2; Kyle Gotham in the 600 in 1:39; Abel Alcanter in the 1000 in 3:08; Rawlings Toglan in the mile in 5:11; and John DelloRusso in the two mile in 11:25.

The other first place victors for the Pats were Omar Morales with a shotput toss of 45-11 and Joe Ritchie in the 50 yard dash in 5.7.

Second place efforts for the deep boys’ team came from: Marza Liskovica in the shotput with a throw of 37-2; Jeff Simbert in the dash in 5.8; Johnny Lopes in the 300 in 40.7; Derek Fortuna in the 600 in 1:41; Mohamed Benzadok in the 1000 in 3:10; William Truong in the mile in 5:24; and Wilmer Cruz in the two mile in 11:37.

Third place efforts were turned in by: Daniel Rivera in the 300 in 1:44; Thiago Moreira in the 600 in 1:44; Ben Graciani in the 1000 in 3:10; Sala Barhoum in the mile in 5:44; and Kristi Nushi in the two mile in 11:49.

Another performance of note came in the junior varsity meet in which Younes Hartout ran the 50 yard dash in 5.6, the fastest time of the day in that event.

Coach Jack Mosco and his crew will travel to Beverly next Tuesday.

Boys hoop team drops two contests

The Revere High boys basketball team dropped its two contests this past week, falling to Beverly on Friday, 59-43, and Peabody on Monday, 53-45.

“We committed too many turnovers in both games and then, when we began to get back into the game, we couldn’t hit a shot,” said RHS head coach Rick Hayes.

The Patriots got off to slow starts in both encounters. They did not score a basket until five minutes had elapsed in the Beverly game and trailed 11-2 in the opening minutes against Peabody.

However, Revere rebounded by the end of the first quarter in both tilts, trailing 12-8 after one frame vs. Beverly and drawing even at 13-13 vs. Peabody. Both contests also were manageably close at the half and shortly into the third period.

Trailing 42-31 at the intermission against Beverly, a three pointer by Tommy Sor and a basket by Doug Zingali at the outset of the second half quickly cut the deficit to 42-36. But a pair of successive turnovers led to two easy layups for Beverly, reinstating the Panthers’ double digit lead, 46-36.

“We had the momentum when we came out strong to start the second half, but then we gave it away,” noted Hayes. Although Revere played well on defense the rest of the way, they managed to put only seven more points on the scoreboard. The Patriot offense was hampered by the loss of Mike Ciambelli, who was forced to the sidelines in the third quarter because of an injury he initially had suffered in a game the week before.

Sor led the Pats in the scoring department with 13 points and Zingali made a solid contribution with 11 points. Geo Gomez hit for seven, Steve Selevitch added five, Mike Dreeszen chipped in three, and Ciambelli and Chris Hinajosa had two apiece.

In the Peabody contest, the Pats trailed  36-32 at the half, but made it a 36-35 affair at the start of the third period. But the Patriots lost their shooting touch from that point forward, accounting for just 10 more points for the rest of the game.

Gomez was high man with 13 points, followed by Ciambelli with nine, Jay Seigal with six, Ravi ryland with five, Dom Boyce, Dreeszen, and Sor with three each, Hinajosa with two, and Selevitch with a free throw.

Hayes and his crew begin play against their six foes from the Northeastern Conference’s South (Small) Division tonight (Wednesday) when they travel to Gloucester. They trek to Swampscott Friday and return for some home cooking Tuesday against Winthrop.

Hockey team plays well vs. Swampscott

The Revere High hockey team played well against one of the better teams in the Northeastern Conference, battling hard all the way in a 4-1 loss to Swampscott Saturday.

The Patriots played staunch defense in front of junior netminder Adam Comeau. The teams dueled to a 0-0 deadlock after one frame and matters stood at 1-0 in favor of Swampscott after two periods.

Although Swampscott increased their advantage to 2-0 early in the third stanza, Patriot John Galaitis scored on a long shot on net just 11 seconds later to make it a one goal game once again. However, that would be as close as the Pats would get, as Swampscott added an insurance marker with about five minutes to play and then scored an empty-netter for the 4-1 finale.

“We knew Swampscott would be a strong opponent,” said RHS head coach Joe Ciccarello. “We came out playing well and we maintained our intensity and focus, especially in the defensive end. Now we need to start scoring some goals.”

Earlier in the week the Pats dropped a 4-1 decision to non league rival Northeast Regional Vocational School. A slow start put the Patriots behind the 8-ball to the tune of a 3-0 deficit after one period. Revere took control of the contest in the second stanza and sliced the lead to 3-1 on a lamplighter by freshman Joe Ristino, assisted by Chris Curtis.

However, a goal by Northeast in the final period prevented the Patriots from sustaining their momentum, even though Revere enjoyed a territorial advantage the rest of the way.

Ciccarello said he will be making some changes in his lineup, moving senior goalie Jon Papasadora to a forward position, were he has played before, and Marco Mazzarelli from the front line to defense.

“We have two outstanding goalies in Jon and Adam,” said Ciccarello. “If Jon can give us a boost at forward, it makes sense to use him there, rather than keeping either Adam or him on the bench.”

The Pats were set to play at Lynn tonight (Wednesday) and will host Gloucester Saturday evening with a 5:10  face off at Cronin Rink.

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