At the end of the movie The Big Lebowski, the character known only as The Stranger neatly sums up one way to think about how life works: “Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.â€
The Revere High football team learned the meaning of that oft-quoted line from the cult movie Friday night at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, as the Patriots, who had gotten the bear in five of their six previous contests this season, came out on the short end of a 38-13 decision to Lynn English.
“Lynn English is a very good football team and you have to give them credit for playing a great game,†said RHS head coach Lou Cicatelli. “But we didn’t play our best for most of the game.â€
Cicatelli’s particularly cited what he termed his team’s poor tackling as the most disappointing aspect of the Patriots’ effort.
“We have to do a better job tackling the opposing team,†said the coach. “That is something we will have to work at and improve upon if we want to win some more football games this season.â€
English scored on its first drive of the game, but the contest still was a tight 6-0 affair midway through the second period when the roof fell in on the Pats. English put together another long scoring drive to increase its advantage to 14-0, but Revere seemed poised to strike back with a drive deep into English territory near the end of the half.
However, a Revere penalty for offsides turned a third and three at the English 20 into a third and eight. The Pats’ next play got them five yards, but they then were unable to convert on fourth down, turning the ball back over to English.
It seemed as though the half would end on that note, but a broken English play with just seconds left in the half resulted in a 60 yard TD scamper that upped the English advantage to 21-0 at the intermission.
“That last touchdown was a real killer,†noted Cicatelli. “We had begun to play better on defense and had moved the ball on offense, but that play changed the entire tenor of the game.â€
